Related by Blood
by Sashadora
Summary: Late at night, a little girl knocks on the door to the boarding house. She doesn't know why, but after one look at her Damon does know... Who said vampires can't procreate?
1. Chapter 1

Damon was alone in the parlor, sitting at his usual spot on the couch and staring into the fire. The obligatory glass of bourbon was in his hand. All of a sudden, he was thrown back to reality when he heard a knock on the door. He growled slightly and trudged out in the hall to open, too annoyed that anyone would be knocking on their door at this hour to even think about who it might be.

"What?" He exclaimed curtly as he swung the front door open. He looked out into the dark but didn't see anyone. He tilted his head downward slightly to see a little girl standing there. She had dark wavy hair down to just below her shoulders and looked to be around seven years old, albeit a bit small for her age. Damon thought there was something familiar about her face… She looked up at him with bright sapphire eyes and he cursed under his breath. He suddenly had an idea about who this girl might be.

"What are you doing here?" He snapped and he saw fear flash across her face before she tilted her chin up and said in a clear little voice.

"I'm supposed to knock on this door and ask for Damon Salvatore." She said.

"That's me." Damon said through clenched teeth, eyeing the little girl. "What do you want?"

The girl's lip trembled slightly and her eyes started to water.

"I don't know…" She admitted. "I don't know how I got here and my mom is gone." She looked around, as if expecting to see her mother jump up from around the corner.

Damon pursed his lips and eventually let out a sigh. He would regret this for eternity.

"Get in here." He said to the girl, gently (for him that is) pushing her into the house.

She was his daughter after all.

He led her into the parlor and sat her down on the couch where he had been sitting before. Damon crouched down before her. She looked around, appearing to be in awe. It was quite an impressive house for anyone who hadn't seen it before.

"Look at me." Damon told her and she turned her head towards him. Her eyes were almost glowing in the dim light. "What's your name?" he asked her.

"Katie" she replied.

"Of course it is." Damon snorted. "Short for Katherine?"

"Yeah!" Katie burst out, looking surprised. "How did you know that?"

"Just a hunch." Damon muttered. "Like I said before, I'm Damon and don't you think about calling me anything but Damon."

"What else would I call you?" Katie frowned at him.

"Nothing, that's what I'm saying." Damon hissed, knowing that he might be exaggerating. This girl clearly had no idea about who he was.

Katie yawned, looking as if about to fall over. Damon sighed and rose, picking her up in his arms.

"Why are you carrying me?" Katie demanded. "I can walk actually." Yet she didn't struggle to get out of his grip, but closed her eyes as her head fell on his shoulder. Damon didn't answer her but kept going until he reached his room. He wouldn't go through the trouble of putting together one of the guest rooms for her, because in his mind she would not be staying long. He held Katie in one of his arms and pulled off a corner of the cover. He laid her down on the bed and put the cover over her but she immediately sat up.

"I haven't brushed my teeth." She declared. "I have to brush my teeth before I go to bed."

"You're excused this once, just go to sleep." Damon turned to go back downstairs but Katie repeated herself:

"I have to. Don't you have toothbrushes?"

Damon turned back to her, looking into her determined eyes. He realized she wasn't going to back down on this so he sighed and walked into his bathroom, taking out an unused toothbrush from one of the drawers. He always kept several spare ones in the event of nightly guests. He had never had one quite this young before though. He placed the toothbrush and toothpaste on the counter and went back to Katie, who was now standing beside the bed.

"Toothbrush is in the bathroom, be quick." He told her and she ran off into the bathroom.

Damon sat down on the bed and heard the water being turned on. A few minutes later, Katie came back and even smiled a little.

"It's very important to brush your teeth." She said. "Do you brush your teeth twice a day?" she asked him.

"Yeah, yeah." Damon said, lifting her up and placing her back in the bed. "Now you can go to sleep."

"I don't have anything to sleep in." Katie said in a matter-of-fact tone. "May I please borrow some pajamas?"

"Do I look like I own children's pajamas?" Damon let out, frustrated. "Hm?"

"No." Katie mumbled, looking away.

Damon felt a pang of guilt, which annoyed him even more but still drove him to walk over to his closet and pick out one of his t-shirts. He handed it to Katie.

"Please, _please, _will you lie down and go to sleep after you put this on?"

"Yes, thank you!" Katie said, smiling. She dove in under the covers and Damon watched them move, slightly amused, before she came back out. Her hair was ruffled and she was now wearing his black t-shirt, which was so big on her it was practically a night gown. She took her skirt and sweater and crept to the end of the bed, where she hung them over the bedpost. She once again dove under the cover and Damon once again watched them move until she came up at the other end, lying down with her head on the pillow. Damon raised his eyebrows.

"Ok?" he looked sternly at her. "You'll sleep now?"

"Yes." Kate said and he started walking away. "Damon?" she called out and Damon moaned slightly.

"What?" He asked, half turning around so he was looking back at her from the side.

"Why are all your rooms so big?" she looked around the room. "My room is really tiny, you could put… _ten _of my room in here."

"You just don't stop, do you?" Damon sighed.

"My mom says I'm very inquisitive."

"You're too young to know that word." Damon told her.

"But I know it because I asked what it meant." Katie said triumphantly. Then her face turned darker. "Damon? Where is my mom?"

"I couldn't tell you, sweetheart." He said impatiently. "You might as well give it a rest and if you sleep she might be here tomorrow. Ok?" He knew that he shouldn't say that, since it was probably not the case but at that moment he would have said anything to get the girl to sleep so he could be alone with his thoughts. So he could develop a game plan to get her back to her mother and away from this house as soon as possible.

"Ok." Katie seemed to relax. She leaned back against the pillows and actually fell asleep. Damon let out a sigh of relief. He crept closer to the bed, to make sure she really was sleeping. She was. Against his will, Damon had to admit to himself that she was very cute. But then again, he thought to himself, how could she have been anything else when she had him for a father.

Damon quickly went back downstairs and into the parlor, where he filled a glass with bourbon and drained it before refilling the glass. He was happy Stefan was staying at Elena's tonight. Having his brother standing around judging him would have pushed Damon over the edge. He sighed as he sat down on the couch, resuming his previous staring into the shrinking fire. Damon considered putting more wood on it but couldn't be bothered. He stretched out on the couch, placing his glass beside it. It wasn't long before he drifted off to sleep.

"Mom!" Damon woke up from Katie screaming upstairs. "Mo-om!"

He cursed before speeding up the stairs and into his bedroom, where he was surprised to see that Katie was actually still asleep. However, she was crying and kicking which indicated she was having a nightmare. Damon contemplated leaving but something kept him beside the bed. He crouched down and looked at Katie as she fought in her sleep. He placed a hand on her forehead as if to still her and mumbled in her ear.

"Katie. Katie, wake up."

She woke up gasping for air, hysterically looking around her. He moved his hand from her forehead to her chest to keep her down.

"There now." He said in a slightly bored tone. "No need to panic, it was just a dream."

Katie looked at him with furrowed brows. Then she quickly turned away from him, wriggling out of his grip. He could have held her down of course, but instead stood up and watched as her shoulders began to shake from her crying. She was trying hard to be quiet but he obviously heard her anyway. Damon sighed deeply before sitting down beside her little body, stroking her hair back from her face. It was tear-stained and wet and her blue eyes practically glowed in the dim moonlight shining in through the window; they glittered with tears.

"Katie." Damon said in a gentler voice. "I get that the dream was scary but it wasn't real, ok?"

"I know that!" Katie sounded insulted.

"Then why are you crying?" Damon asked as if it was the stupidest thing he could think of.

"Because it felt real!" Katie exclaimed, but in a voice that was mad rather than upset. "Duh!"

"Did you just say 'duh'"?

"Maybe." Katie muttered and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

They were silent for a while; Katie showed no sign of going back to sleep and Damon eventually asked:

"So now what? Do you… want to tell me about the dream you had? Will that make you feel better?"

"No." Katie shook her head.

"All right, so what do you want me to do?"

"I don't know." Katie said sourly and Damon felt himself getting irritated again.

"Ok, fine." He said, rising from the bed. "I'll just go then."

"No!" Katie cried out, making him turn back with raised eyebrows. "Please don't leave me alone."

She was looking up at him with those eyes that were identical to his own. Except for one thing: in Katie's eyes there was innocence. Innocence and sincerity that had hadn't been seen in his eyes in… A long time. Damon sighed for the umpteenth time that night and kicked of his leather boots.

"Scoot over." He told Katie and got into the bed as she moved away.

He lay down beside the little girl and she curled up into a little ball on the other side of the bed. Then she suddenly reached for his hand and a bit surprised, Damon gave it to her. She clutched it and closed her eyes, falling asleep almost instantly. Which was more than what could be said for Damon. He lay completely still for over an hour, scared that any move he made might make her wake up or withdraw her hand. Damon would never have admitted it to anyone, but his daughter wanting to hold his hand warmed his dead heart more than he would have thought possible.


	2. Chapter 2

Damon woke up before the sun had even come out. He growled slightly before remembering the little girl still sleeping beside him he gazed over to find that sometime during the night, Katie's hand had slipped out of his. The kid was now on her stomach, her head sticking out from under the cover at the foot of the bed. Even in her sleep Katie seemed unable to keep from tumbling around under the duvet. Damon didn't much care to think about what that might mean when she would get older. He carefully slipped out of bed, not bothering to put his shoes on, and tiptoed over to the door. He looked back at Katie and let out a chuckle at how cute she looked with her hair covering half her face and her little hands that were now her pillow. He took his phone out from his pocket and quickly took a picture. Katie stirred a little in her sleep but didn't wake up. Damon continued out the door and made his way downstairs. He went to the kitchen to make some coffee and was surprised when he ran into Stefan, who was already by the counter pouring from a fresh pot.

"I'm assuming you want some." Stefan said, overlooking Damon's ruffled shirt and messy hair.

"Oh yeah." Damon said, accepting the cup Stefan handed to him. He sat down at the table and Stefan jumped up on the counter.

"Why are you even here?" Damon asked his brother. "Couldn't get it up?"

"Had to get up." Stefan paid no mind to his brother. "Elena is taking Jeremy on some sort of camping trip."

"Well, that's a stupid idea." Damon frowned. "Is she aware that there are vampires and werewolves around _everywhere _these days?"

"It's not a real camping trip, it's some resort really." Stefan shrugged. "Alaric and Jenna were supposed to have gone but you know…"

"She was sacrificed by a crazy hybrid." Damon smirked as Stefan rolled her eyes.

"You get the rest." Stefan sighed. "Oh, by the way! I found a letter outside the door, saying your name on it."

"What?" Damon rise quickly. "Where is it?"

"Right here." Stefan said, taking the letter off the counter and handing it to Damon as he came at towards him.

"Damon?" A little voice said just as he was about to open the letter.

"What now?" Damon asked roughly as he shoved the letter into his jean pocket. "It's not even six a.m. yet Katie, go back to bed."

"Wha..?" Stefan started but was interrupted by Damon.

"Before you say _anything, _brother, I'll introduce you to Katie." He said with a warning look at his brother. "She's just visiting while her mom is away. Hannah, you remember her?"

Stefan shook his head in amazement and just stared at Katie until he felt his brother's penetrating glare.

"Oh, ok sure." He said as casually as he could. "Welcome to our house, Katie."

"Thank you very much sir." Katie replied and curtsied, which made Stefan laugh and Damon snort.

"No need to call me sir." Stefan smiled at her. "I'm Stefan."

"But his middle name is kiss-ass" Damon muttered under his breath. "Let's get you back to bed, it's way too early for you to be up."

"But I'm not tired!" Katie protested in her clear voice.

"Oh, yes you are." Damon bent down to her level and looked into her eyes as his pupils dilated.

"You look funny." Katie commented.

Oh, hell. The compulsion hadn't worked. Damon was screwed.

XXXXX

Without compulsion, Damon still managed to persuade Katie to watch TV in his room. The way she had been so far, he guessed that would keep her still for up to half an hour. Damon went back downstairs and into the parlor, where he sat on the couch and opened the letter. It read:

_Damon,_

_I know that I must be the last person you'd want a letter from but I hope that you will still take the time to read this until the end. There are things I need to explain, things that I will never be able to repeat ever again._

_First of all, I am truly sorry about how I acted seven years ago. I should never have trusted Katherine before you, but the shock of finding out what you were got the better of me. That and she compelled me to believe everything she said about you. And I was afraid for the child I was carrying, that you might hurt it somehow. Especially since you didn't believe me when I said it was yours. I'm guessing that after having seen Katie you don't doubt that she's your daughter. She's all you, when I look at her I see nothing of myself._

_I know you told me once that vampires can't procreate and that is what most people believe. However, there is a small chance if a witch casts a certain spell, I wouldn't know how it works. But I met Katherine one night at the bar one night, when you were away, and she compelled me to follow her to a witch friend of hers who cast the spell. Then she compelled me to forget. The reason I know now is because my memories came back to me after I turned into a vampire. Which I did a few weeks ago, when I drank the blood from a vampire a managed to locate and then jumped from our apartment window onto the street. The apartment is on the ninth floor._

_The reason I decided to turn was so that I could be of better service when it came to protecting Katie. A half vampire is rare, and killing her by drinking all of her blood will make any vampire able to walk freely in the sun, and they will no longer be sensitive to vervain or need an invitation to get into a house. Basically, they will be human but immortal and completely without weaknesses. I have been told that they wouldn't need to feed as often either. This is why I wanted to be a vampire, so I could be as fast, strong and dangerous as the creatures that will be coming after my daughter. And basically she is in danger from anyone who has ever seen you and knows what you are. Like I said, there isn't a doubt in the world about who her father is._

_However, my attempt to protect my daughter failed. You already know that when I met you I was a recovering drug addict. And since vampires have heightened senses, you can probably guess where this is going to. I became completely addicted to human blood and when I tried to fight it, the urge became too big and the other night I attacked my own little girl. Katherine of all people was the one to pull me off of her. In case you're wondering why Katherine is so keen on keeping Katie alive, or causing her to be able to exist, it's because being a human and vampire hybrid makes Katie perfectly able to kill other hybrids. Or, she will be able to when she grows up. Katherine wants Katie in order to kill Klaus._

_I don't want Katie in the care of Katherine. To think that I named my child after that manipulative bitch, who turned me against the love of my life, sickens me. Too late now though, I can hardly change Katie's name at this point. I don't want Katherine, or any vampire for that matter, to come near Katie. Which means I need her to have the best protection against what's out there, meaning you Damon. I need you to take care of our daughter because I can't. I don't trust myself, so after I deliver this letter to you, after I send Katie your way, I will go somewhere far away and step out in the sunlight to disappear forever. I will not kill more innocent people and I deserve to die for almost killing my daughter. _

_Katie is an amazing child, which you will notice soon enough. I have learned that half-vampires function seemingly as humans and they grow to be the age their vampire parent was when they turned. Then they will stop aging. That is all I know, it is all that Katherine ever told me._

_I ask you to understand why I'm doing what I'm doing and I ask you to always protect our daughter. When she's older, tell her about me and make sure she understands that what I did, I did for her. Have her know that I'll always love her._

_Good bye Damon,_

_Hannah_

The sun had come up outside. Damon sighed as he put the letter back into his pocket. It seemed he would be decorating one of the spare bedrooms after all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow! Thank you so much for your kind reviews. I'm so happy that you like the story; I really enjoy writing it but your reviews make it even more fun. Please keep reviewing and letting me know what you think, you're awesome! Also, if you wish for something in particular to happen or for the story to go in a certain kind of way: don't hesitate to tell me and I might get inspired ;) **

**I should maybe tell you that I don't really follow what happens in the series. However, it's set after the end of season 2 but with a Stefan that's still a saint. That might change in the future however… Or what say you? Enjoy!**

**XXX**

"Hannah, Hannah, Hannah…" Damon muttered. "What an idiot you were."

He sincerely hoped that Katie would turn out smarter than her mother and if not smarter, at least more street smart. In his opinion, anyone should be able to recognize Katherine as a double crossing bitch and not just swallow her every word like Hannah had. Like he had… Whatever. Damon trudged upstairs towards his bedroom. He figured it was time he knew some things.

He walked into his bedroom to find that Katie was no longer on the floor in front of the television, sitting on some cushions and watching the morning news (she had frowned at cartoons, wanting to watch "real" people). Damon could hear the water running from the bathroom however and went into the luxurious ensuite bathroom he took such pride in. Katie was standing by the bathtub, her hair was wet and she had changed into the red t-shirt and embroidered jean skirt that she had been wearing yesterday. The bathtub was filled with water and on the edge Katie had put all of the various expensive bars of soap from the bowl by his wash basin. She was holding one of them and rubbing it against some wet, black fabric… Damon cursed silently. The t-shirt he had lent her.

"And just _what _do you think you're doing?" he hissed at the girl.

Katie jumped at the sound of his voice and dropped the shirt into the tub. Damon stepped over and picked it up, holding it up before his daughter as it dripped water on the floor. It was ruined; Katie had apparently been at it with the soap bar for a while.

"Do you _know _how much this cost?" Damon asked her through clenched teeth. He sighed and threw the shirt in a pile in the corner of the room. "What were you even doing?"

"I was washing it." Katie said, offended. "It's polite to wash clothes after you borrow them."

Damon was at a loss for words, which was something that happened about once a decade, if that often.

"What _are _you?" he frowned at Katie. He hadn't meant it as a real question but she replied, again with the matter-of-fact tone she seemed so fond of:

"Flesh, blood and mostly water. And I'm also a Sagittarius."

"If you tell me you believe in astrology I'll lock you up in the basement." Damon threatened but Katie looked up at him with a defiant look in her sapphire eyes.

"You're the rudest person I've ever met." Katie declared and crossed her arms over her chest. "_You _should be locked up."

"My house, my rules, sweetheart. And it's about time we established some ground rules." Damon said as he lifted her up by her arms and roughly placed her on the counter beside the wash basin. He put one hand by each side of her so she wouldn't get the idea to run off on him. Katie wriggled where she sat, losing the defiant spark in her eyes and glaring down at her knees.

"First rule." Damon placed thumb under her chin, tilting her head up to make her look at him. "You do as I say. Always. If I tell you no, it means no and I will not compromise or bargain with you. Leading me to the second rule: you don't touch my things unless I've specifically given you permission. Got it?"

Katie nodded, pouting slightly. Damon stood back and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Third rule: you're not allowed to take baths without me knowing about it. In fact, let's make it no baths full stop."

"Why?" Katie demanded, making Damon wonder whether he should make up a forth rule about not asking questions.

"Because" He said as if it was a stupid thing to ask. "You're tiny and you could fall in and drown."

Katie started to giggle, but stopped when Damon glared menacingly at her.

"I wanted to shower but I couldn't get it to work." She admitted. "Do you _know _how important it is to keep clean?" she added, mimicking his tone from before.

"You are such a little neat freak." Damon shook his head in disbelief and then lifted her off the counter, pushing her towards the shower. "I'll show you how it works, it's not exactly science."

"Look" he said when they were in the shower. "There's a safety tap you have to pull right here. Then you just turn the water on… Here!" He turned the shower on, full flow of cold water and used his vampire speed to get out before Katie even realized what happened. He smirked at her as she stood, instantly soaked by the cold water.

"_That's _for ruining my shirt." He said, raising his eyebrows at her.

"You're mean!" Katie screamed at him, looking as if she was crying but it was hard to tell because of the water running down her face. She ran out of the shower, making her way out of the bathroom. Damon heard the bedroom door opened and he heard her run down the stairs. Knowing she wouldn't be able to get out of the house because the door was locked and there was no way she would reach the top lock, Damon didn't bother to follow her. He turned the shower off with a sigh and walked out of the bathroom, an uncharacteristic feeling of guilt telling him that he might have gone just a little bit far. It seemed unlikely now that he had actually come up to get to know more about Katie. He had learned some things about her though, he knew now that she had an obsession with hygiene for one. And that she thought it was important to be polite, which almost made him question his paternity again. He had however seen some traits in her that he recognized in himself, from which he understood that the row they just had was probably just the first of many to come.

As Damon was emptying the tub and putting all his soaps back into the bowl he was starting to feel annoyed with himself for losing his temper with Katie before he even got to ask her the things he'd been planning to. About her mother, about what had happened with Katherine. Now he realized that it would probably not be easy to get his daughter to give him any answers to anything he might ask her or say to her. How he would tell her that her mother was most likely dead and that she wasn't coming back for her Damon didn't even begin to think about.

**Alright, there you have it. Not a very nice one I'm afraid but things will get better soon. Please let me know what you think! I'm dying to know what you think about the character Katie, since I think it's pretty hard to write characters that are children. Thank you so much for reading.**

**xo**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm still having a lot of fun with this, so I keep updating! LiveBreatheVampires – we're on the same page. How much or little time it might take however, we'll have to see **

XXX

"Is that guilt I see in your face?" Stefan said from the doorway, looking amused.

"Shut up, Stefan." Damon hissed at his brother and refolded the duvet. Katie seemed to have tried to make the bed but she had done it all wrong. Obviously. "Where is she?" Damon asked without looking at Stefan.

"Hiding under the desk in the library." Stefan walked into the room and casually sat down on the bed Damon had just made so carefully. "What did you do to her? Was she _wet?"_

"Maybe." Damon muttered. "I didn't 'do anything _to _her'; I just had to teach her a little lesson about messing with my belongings."

"All right then, what did _she _do?"

Damon glared warningly at Stefan, but his younger brother was used to his crazy-eyes-look by now and kept looking at him questioningly. After a while Damon gave in and said in a frustrated tone:

"She ruined my shirt; she tried to wash it with sandalwood soap!"

"Really Damon?" Stefan raised his eyebrows at him. "She tried to wash your shirt and you what, you drowned her?"

"Dude! John Varvatos! And I didn't drown her, what do you take me for?" Damon wanted to strangle his brother really, really bad. "I just put her in the shower and turned on the cold water, what's the big deal?"

"The big deal" Stefan started. "Is that now that she'll be living it with us, it's not exactly a good idea to scare her and make her cry the first thing you do."

"How do you she'll be living with us?" Damon's brow furrowed.

"I read Hannah's letter before I gave it to you." Stefan said in a matter-of-fact tone not unlike the one of his niece's.

"You're telling me this so casually now and yet you were quite the actor when it came to playing surprised when you first saw her his morning." Damon snorted.

Stefan just shrugged. "I wasn't surprised to see her; I was just shocked by how much she looks like you. I didn't expect it to be _that _obvious that you're related. When she's an adult you'll be able to pose as twins. _Identical _twins that is."

"Don't try to be funny, little brother. It just doesn't suit you." Damon said with a dead expression but then he remembered something else he had just heard. "Did you say she was crying?"

"What did you expect?" Stefan started walking towards the door to leave.

"I thought she might be… just mad or something."

Stefan stopped in the doorway.

"Do you want me to talk to her?" he asked with a sincere look on his face.

"No!" Damon scoffed. "You don't get to establish yourself as the good guy when I'm stuck being the villain. We already have that with Elena, and Katie is _my _daughter."

"Fine." Stefan held his hands up in surrender. "Just offering. But in that case I suggest you try to repair the damage you've already caused straight away because I'm not staying out of it too long. I'm too much of a saint to ignore a little girl's cries for more than a certain amount of time."

With that, he turned and walked out of the room towards his own. Damon growled a little and then vampire sped downstairs, stopping outside the library to walk in normally. He didn't know how much Katie knew about vampires and as much as he hated to admit it; Stefan was right. It was unnecessary to scare her too much from the start. Damon walked in and looked around the room, even though he knew as well as heard that Katie was under the desk. She had tried to go quiet when she had heard him come but her breathing was still in the rhythm of sobs, not to mention that Damon had super hearing and would probably have heard her even if she hadn't been breathing at all. He walked slowly around the desk and pushed the armchair away before crouching down and looking into the dark little space where there was only room for someone's legs. Or a small person, like a child. Damon saw how she stiffened at the sight of him and he saw the fear in her eyes. It made his stomach churn. He sat down, leaning against the desk and looking at Katie. She looked down at her bare feet, trembling. She looked so vulnerable with her wet clothes and hair. Damon finally managed to get out what he needed to say:

"I'm sorry Katie. I overreacted."

She didn't react, just kept looking at her feet.

"Did you hear me?" Damon asked her. "I shouldn't have gotten so angry, and I know you were just trying to do a good thing."

He saw that her shoulders were shaking and after some hesitation, he put a hand on her trembling back. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears.

"I want my mom" She sobbed.

"I know." Damon didn't know what else to say.

"When is she coming to get me?"

"Yeah, about that…" Damon sighed. "She's not coming back for a while. She had to go on a long trip and you'll have to stay here with me and Stefan."

As expected, what he just said made Katie cry even harder.

"But you don't even like me!" she wailed.

"Sure I do." Damon kept patting her back. "I just don't know you. And you don't know me either. But we'll get to know each other, ok?"

Katie tried to calm herself down, still hugging her knees.

"Ok?" Damon repeated softly.

Katie nodded.

"Come on out then. Let's get you out of those wet clothes."

"I don't have anything else with me to wear." Katie sniveled as she crawled out from under the desk.

"We'll get you some things later today." Damon said as he rose and picked Katie up in his arms, holding her close to keep her warm. "I'll give you something of mine in the meantime."

Katie smiled sadly and then said in a solemn voice:

"I promise not to wash it."

Xxx

**That's that. I hope you liked it and please keep reviewing! It's so much fun to hear what you're thinking.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Ok, here's another one! I'm glad you liked the previous chapter. This one is kind of long and I ended up throwing Caroline into the mix. Hope you like it and please review!**

**XXX**

"There we go." Damon said as he sat Katie down on his bed. He walked over to his closet and started rummaging through it, trying to find something, anything of his that might fit a seven-year-old. He found a pair of boxers that he had forgotten he owned. They were striped black and white, made of cotton and tied in the waist so Katie could wear them until he managed to get some proper clothes for her. He snorted at them; he sincerely hoped that he really had never worn them and not just repressed the memories of the times he had. He also picked out a black t-shirt similar to the one that was still lying in a pile in the bathroom and when he heard Katie shudder behind him he took out a pair of socks and a dark grey cashmere sweater. He turned around and put the clothes on the bed beside Katie.

"I'll wait outside while you change." He told her. "Just put your own clothes in the bathroom and I'll take care of them later."

Katie just nodded, jumping off the bed as Damon walked out of the room. Out in the hallway, he picked up his phone and was about to dial a number when he suddenly remembered the conversation he'd had with Stefan this morning. Elena was out of town.

"Damn it." He muttered and scrolled through his contacts. He moaned slightly when he realized who he needed to call but then pressed her name with a sigh.

"Hello?" She picked up after the first signal, the desperate little people pleaser.

"Blondie" Damon said and the smirk could be heard in his voice. "Glad I reached you."

"Damon?" Caroline let out in surprise. "Is there a problem?"

"For once there isn't" Damon leaned against the wall as he spoke. "I need your help with something."

"Oh?" Caroline nearly managed to keep the suspicion form being heard in her voice. "What is it?"

"I need you to do some shopping for me."

"Seriously?" Caroline exclaimed in disbelief. "What kind of shopping?"

"I'd like you to get me a few sets of clothes, underwear, PJs and the whole deal: anything a seven-year-old girl might need." He added: "Don't care about what it costs, I'll give you money later and I'll throw in a little extra for the trouble. Just get everything and bring it to the boarding house as soon as you can."

"Damon, what have you done?" Caroline asked.

"Will you do it or not?" Damon hissed.

"God, I'll do it!" she sounded offended. "I'll go straight away."

"Thanks." He muttered. "I'll explain when you get here, just hurry."

He figured Katie must be changed now so he went back inside the bedroom. Katie was sitting on the bed in the clothes he had given her. She was practically drowning in them, even the socks hung off her tiny feet. Damon held back a laugh. He sat down next to her and noted that her lips were purple.

"Are you still cold?" He asked her.

"A little." Katie admitted. "But this sweater is really warm and really cozy too."

"I know." Damon smirked at her. "A friend of mine is coming by later and she'll bring you some new clothes of your own."

"That's very nice of her." Katie said and yawned. "I'm tired, Damon. Can I…" She hesitated, as if she was afraid to ask him for anything. "Can I go back to bed?"

"Sure you can." He had never been more relieved in his life. "Sleep all day if you want."

Katie crawled under the cover and laid her head on the pillow. She looked as if she fell asleep instantly. Damon remained on the bed for a little while before he rose and walked out of the room and over to Stefan's. The younger Salvatore was sitting at his desk, writing in his journal.

"How did it go?" Stefan asked without looking up from his writing.

"I turned on my father figure charm." Damon said with a cockiness he didn't quite feel. "I even apologized for overreacting, so now it's all back to sunshine and rainbows. Children are easy like that, so… forgiving and forgetting." He smirked and Stefan turned in his chair to face him. He wasn't amused.

"Damon, don't think that just because you apologized and had a moment with her, that this is all of a sudden going to be easy." He said. "She's still been abandoned by her mother at the house of two strange men that she's not even aware that she's related to. It's gonna take some time to earn her trust."

Damon couldn't really argue with that so he just scoffed and started looking through Stefan's bookshelves. After a while he said:

"She really does look like me, doesn't she?" He said this with a certain amount of pride that he was unable to hide.

Stefan let out a chuckle:

"If we're lucky, her looks is as far as her likeness to you extends."

Xxx

Caroline arrived at the house just an hour later, fully loaded with shopping bags that looked crammed with clothes. She had a big smile on her face and was practically jumping up and down, as if the shopping had made her high.

"I haven't shopped for a little girl before." She said. "So much fun! I had no idea there were so much pretty stuff for seven-year-olds."

"Yeah, yeah." Damon said in a bored tone. "Just get in here"

Caroline followed him into the parlor, where she dropped all the bags on the couch. Then she placed herself in an armchair, declining the bourbon Damon offered her.

"Now you tell me." She demanded. "Why is there a little girl in your house and why is she staying for such a long time that she'll need all that stuff?"

"Who said anything about there being an actual girl in this house?" Damon smirked. "Maybe I just have some sick fantasies that I finally decided to live out?"

"Fine!" Caroline rose. "If you're not telling, I'm not helping. I'll just take these back." She started collecting the bags again.

"Wait!" Damon hissed. "Sit down." He then ordered.

Caroline sat back down and Damon pushed aside some of the shopping and sat on the couch.

"There is a little girl here, her name is Katie and she's my daughter."

"Oh my god, poor thing!" Caroline let out, making Damon narrow his eyes at her. "How is that even possible?" She asked without noticing.

"A spell some witch put on her mother. I wouldn't know how it worked but she's half vampire, half human." He hesitated, not quite sure of whether to tell her this. "Meaning she has some vampire abilities and some human abilities. For a vampire, drinking all of Katie's blood would mean the ability to walk in the sun, not having to be invited in and not being damaged by vervain. And Katie would, theoretically, be able to kill any sort of hybrid. Which is not good considering the town is starting to crawl with them."

"So basically" Caroline started to sum up. "She's in danger from vampires because her blood is special and she's in danger from hybrids because she's a danger to them?"

Damon shrugged. "That's about right." He frowned dangerously and glared at the blonde. "If you so much as touch her I'll rip you apart. Slowly."

"Seriously?" Caroline let out a laugh. "Like I would hurt a little kid. Where is her mom by the way?"

"As far as we know burned to ashes by the sun." Damon scoffed. "She left a little suicide note right after she sent Katie knocking on our door last night."

"Poor thing." Caroline repeated. "She must be so freaked out."

"She's sleeping." Damon said curtly. Then he picked up his phone and showed Caroline the picture he had taken earlier this morning.

"Aaaw!" Caroline burst out. "She is _so _cute, I mean seriously! And she looks just like you, it's insane."

"Yeah, yeah. She doesn't know I'm her father and don't you dare tell her." Damon quickly slipped the phone back in his pocket and took out his wallet instead, which he handed to Caroline before he rose. "Take what you need for the clothes, I'll go see if Katie's awake."

XXX

Katie was indeed awake, lying in the Damon's big bed and looking into the wall. She felt sad and she didn't know what to think. Why had her mom just left her here? Katie had a vague idea but it was not very nice to think about so she tried not to. Instead she thought about Damon, even if she didn't quite know what to think about him either. He could be so mean and scary but he _had _been nice to her too. It had felt good to hold his hand last night; she had been less scared by her dream then. But that was maybe because Damon seemed like he could be even scarier than what was in the dream so having him on her side she knew that she would be safe. Just as long as he didn't get mad at her.

Katie was still deep in thought when she heard the door open. She rolled over and saw Damon entering the room.

"Sleep alright?" He asked her and she nodded. "Good. Caroline, the girl I told you about, has come over with some things for you. Wanna come check it out?" He held out his hand to her and after some hesitation Katie took it and climbed out of bed. She went with him downstairs and he led her into what he referred to in her mind as "the big room". There was a tall, blonde girl with a really big smile on her face.

"Hi Katie!" she beamed and Katie smiled cautiously as Caroline bent over and put her hands on her knees. "It's _so _good to meet you, I'm Caroline. I'm a friend of your… of Damon's and Stefan's."

"Nice to meet you." Katie said shyly and Caroline stood up straight again.

"She's adorable!" She said to Damon. "Come on Katie, I'll show you what I've got for you."

Katie glanced up at Damon, who let go of her hand and cocked his head at Caroline for Katie to follow her. He went behind the couch to a table with lots of pretty bottles on it, and poured something golden from one of them into a glass. Katie went over to Caroline where she stood by the couch.

"Ok." Caroline started taking emptying the bags onto the sofa. "I've got you the cutest things. I have all the essentials, like underwear, PJs, t-shirts, some skirts and jeans, a jacket, sweaters, hoodies…" As she was talking she put all the garments out. Katie wriggled, getting uncomfortable.

"Um, Caroline?" She said.

"Yup!" Caroline turned to her, still smiling widely. Katie looked at her feet.

"I don't really like pink." She mumbled.

"Oh!" Caroline burst out and turned angrily at Damon, who was laughing. Almost everything she had bought was pink, with only a few exceptions.

"What's with all the pink, Blondie?" Damon asked, still with a smirk on his face.

"You told me to shop for a _little girl_ so I just thought… Why don't you like pink?" Caroline asked Katie, who was feeling bad for her because she looked so sad and confused.

"I don't know…" She sighed. "I just kind of hate it because all the people I know who like pink a lot are really bitchy."

"There's honesty for you!" Damon chuckled and sat down on the other couch, putting his feet up. Caroline however, looked hurt and Katie suddenly noticed that she was wearing a pink blouse underneath her jean jacket.

"Um…" Katie started. "But you have a pink shirt and you're really nice so… I guess I could try."

"No way!" Damon snarled. "You don't have to wear pink if you don't want to, stand up for yourself."

Katie looked from Caroline to Damon, who got up from his spot, put his glass down on the table and started rummaging through the clothes.

"All right, here we go…" He dug through some t-shirts and held up a red one with a flower print. "This one's not pink, do like this?"

Katie nodded.

"Good" Damon threw it on the armchair. "And you can wear pink underwear, no one will see them anyway, not if I can help it…" He took a bag full of flowery, heartsy panties and put that beside the armchair. He systematically picked out all the clothes that weren't pink, they were hard to find but when he was done there were two more t-shirts, a jean jacket, a hoodie, a cardigan, some striped socks, a couple of white tank tops, two pairs of jeans, a pair of sneakers (miraculously they were the right size), a skirt, a knitted sweater and a button down dress and two pairs of pajamas. The clothes that weren't pink were apparently things with patterns or prints that Caroline hadn't been able to resist, because they were all multicolored with polka dots, checkers, embroideries, flower prints and what not.

"There we are." Damon turned to Katie. "Do you like any of this?"

"Yes, I like everything." Katie said quietly with a little smile.

"Good." Damon looked at Caroline. "There you go. She doesn't really need anything else for now, you can take that back." He gestured at the couch where all the pink clothes were.

"Seriously?" Caroline exclaimed. "But she only has like… Not enough."

Katie walked over to Caroline and hugged her hard around her waist.

"Thank you for the clothes!" Katie smiled up at Caroline before letting go.

"Ooh!" Caroline burst out. "You're welcome, and I promise: you'll learn to like pink if you keep spending time with me."

Damon scoffed but Caroline ignored him. Katie went over to the clothes she was to keep and started folding them.

"I can do that for you." Caroline said and hurried over to help Katie.

"Don't bother." Damon smirked. "She likes it."

"I do." Katie said solemnly and folded the checkered skirt with some difficulty. "It's important to fold your clothes."

Damon just shook his head, sitting back down on the couch and throwing Caroline an amused glance. She looked completely in awe over the little girl. After a minute or so Caroline started shoving all the pink clothes back into the shopping bags, before she started to leave.

"Just so you know, I'm keeping the money I took for these too." She muttered to Damon, who simply shrugged in a "what do I care"-look. Caroline snorted and turned to Katie.

"Bye Katie!" she called. "We'll see each other soon I hope!"

"Bye!" Katie turned around and waved. She was actually not a very snugly child, the hug she had given Caroline was something pretty rare.

"Bye Caroline." Damon smirked at her before turning serious and whispering as she left: "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Caroline smiled prettily and left.

Damon looked back at Katie, who was now done with folding the clothes.

"Where do I put them?" She asked with a frown on her face.

"Just leave them for now." Damon told her. "We gotta figure out what room to put you in before there's any point in putting the clothes anywhere. Do you want to change straight away? I hate to break it to you but that look doesn't really do it for you." He eyed his own clothes, huge on her tiny body.

"Yeah…" Katie said. "But Damon? After I change, can I have something to eat please?"

Damon cursed silently. He had completely forgotten about giving her any breakfast.

"Of course." He said, rising from the chair. "You change in here and I'll go fix you something. What do you like to eat?"

"Everything except chocolate and celery." Katie replied.

"You don't like chocolate?" Damon said in disbelief. "You freakish little creature."

Katie just shrugged and looked at him with her big blue eyes.

"Just come to the kitchen when you're ready." He said, rolling his eyes as he left her.

In all honesty, he was getting more attached to his freakish little creature by the minute.

**XXX**


	6. Chapter 6

**Funiasty: Thank you so very much for your review! Hope you, and everyone reading, enjoy the new chapter. **

**XXX **

Damon left Katie to change and walked out to the kitchen. There he found Caroline at the table, happily chatting to Stefan, who was by the stove making pancakes. The damn suck-up.

"I thought you left." Damon said rudely to Caroline.

"I ran into Stefan and he invited me to stay for pancakes." She explained. "I was just talking about how cute Katie is."

"Oh yeah?" Damon said in a bored tone and sat down at the table. If Stefan was already making breakfast, why should he bother?

"Yeah." Stefan added. "And how she's the spitting image of her father."

"Quiet!" Damon hissed.

"So you're not gonna tell her?" Stefan asked as he turned off the stove and brought the serving plate full of pancakes over to the table and then speeded through the cupboards and drawers for plates and silverware. Damon didn't answer.

"Are you serious?" Caroline looked horrified. "You're not gonna tell her that you're her dad? That she's not an orphan?"

"Will you keep it down?" Damon narrowed his eyes. "She doesn't even know her mother is dead so as far as she's concerned, she isn't."

"But…"

"Caroline!" Damon growled. "Just shut up."

They sat in silence for a moment. Stefan rearranged the plates. After a few minutes Damon let out in frustration:

"What's she doing in there? I didn't take her for a girl who spends _hours _choosing her clothes." He glared at Caroline, who rolled her eyes.

Damon rose from the chair and walked quickly towards the parlor, stopping in the doorway when he found that Katie was no longer there.

"Katie!" He called. "If you're playing games right now, it's not funny!"

No answer. He concentrated his ears. He couldn't hear her anywhere in the house.

"Hm." He muttered and walked back into the hallway, where Stefan and Caroline had now come. "She's not here."

"Do you think she heard what we said?" Caroline's eyes widened.

"Maybe." Damon muttered. "But the front door was… It wasn't locked. I didn't lock it after you came. Damn it."

"We'll all look for her." Stefan said. "She can't have gone far."

"Just leaving the house is going far enough." Damon said, with a deep frown on his face. "Let's go."

**XXX**

Katie was running. Not only because she wanted to get as far away from Damon, Stefan and Caroline as she possibly could but also because she didn't believe what they had said. Her mom couldn't be dead; Katie had just seen her yesterday! And she definitely didn't believe that Damon was her dad. Her mother had said that Katie's father was dead. And that he had been nice. Damon wasn't nice, Katie had decided. He just pretended to be sometimes, but he wasn't really. It was mean to say that her mother was dead when it wasn't true. Katie had to see for herself though, before she could be certain that Damon had lied. She knew that dead people ended up in the cemetery so she just needed to find the closest cemetery. If her mother was dead, she would be there and if she wasn't she would still be alive and then Katie would find her. She stopped to catch her breath and looked into the forest beside the road. She saw some mushrooms growing a little bit further in and without thinking she ran over there. She was starving, not having eaten since yesterday. She ate the mushrooms without even thinking about what they tasted like. Then she felt strong enough to keep going and she kept going through the forest.

**XXX**

"Not a good time, Liz." Damon warned as he picked up the phone. The display had told him that it was the sheriff calling.

He had been looking for Katie all day, as had Stefan and Caroline. Since Damon didn't want too many people knowing about Katie's existence and her being in Mystic Falls, he had made Stefan and Caroline swear not to engage anyone else in the search. Now he was beginning to reconsider though, since it was getting dark and it had started to rain over an hour ago.

"This won't take long." Liz Forbes said before continuing. "We found ashes just by the cemetery earlier today. Looks like a sunburnt vampire from what I can tell, so I wanted to tell you and ask I you have any idea who it might be."

"Actually I do have an idea." Damon said absent-mindedly, since the word 'cemetery' had given him another kind of idea. "I wouldn't worry about it, Liz. I believe it was a suicide committed by a vamp stricken by remorse."

"All right, well in that case I'll give it a rest for now."

"You do that." Damon said with a false smile in his voice. He was speeding towards the cemetery but just as he hung up on Sheriff Forbes, Stefan's name appeared on the display.

"I know where she is." He said when he picked up.

"So do I." was Stefan's reply. "She's with me in my car; we're almost back at the boarding house. I found her in the cemetery."

"I know." Damon muttered. "I'll be there in a few. Did you call Caroline?"

"Yeah, she went home."

"Ok, good." Damon hesitated. "Is Katie ok?"

"She will be." Stefan said. "She's sad, wet and tired but not injured."

"Good." Damon repeated. "I'll be home in a few."

He hung up and let out a deep sigh as he felt the relief rushing through him, now realizing how worried he had actually been. Then he felt something else coming over him. Anger.

**XXX**

**So what do you think will happen next? Thank you for reading and please review if you there's something on your mind!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks again for your reviews, here is the next chapter! A little longer than the previous one ;) Enjoy!**

**XXX**

Stefan was sitting next to Katie on the floor in front of the fire. He had put a blanket over her shoulders and placed her as close to the warmth as possible, since she was soaked by the cold November rain. He gazed worriedly at his niece. She hadn't said a word since they had left the cemetery. He had found her wandering around, shivering from the cold but stubbornly reading on each and every gravestone she passed. When he had stood in front of her, scooping her up in his arms to take her home, she had screamed hysterically that she couldn't go, 'because she wasn't done yet', but once he had gotten her to his car she had seemed to realize that the battle was lost and she had gone completely quiet, just staring in front of her. Which was what she was doing now, she was staring into the fire with her father's blue eyes. Stefan was once again struck by how much she looked like Damon. Just as he was thinking about it, Damon stormed into the house and was in the parlor within seconds. Stefan instantly stood up but before he knew it, Damon was by Katie, grasping her little arms hard and yanking her up from the floor. The blanket Stefan had given her fell down into a pile.

"What the _hell _were you thinking?" Damon yelled at Katie as he was shaking her roughly. "Just taking off like that, in a town you don't know? Huh?"

"Damon." Stefan tried. "You're scaring her."

Damon paid no mind to him but clasped onto Katie's arms even harder, making her squirm even if she was still looking at him with a defiant glare.

"Don't _ever _do that again, do you hear me?" Damon hissed and burrowed his eyes into Katie's. "_Anything _could have happened, you could have got lost, and you could have hurt yourself or worse: someone could have hurt you. This town is crawling with bad people who would just looove to take a little girl home and make her disappear forever."

Katie seemed to realize that her little adventure had been a dangerous one because her lip started to tremble and big tears started running silently down her cheeks. Damon loosened his grip slightly but still kept his eyes on her.

"You wouldn't have found your mother at the cemetery anyway." He told her. "She's not there."

"Then she is alive!" Katie burst out, suddenly with a pitiful spark of hope in her eyes. "I knew you were lying."

"I wasn't _lying_, you're mom's dead all right." Damon snarled. "She just hasn't been dead long enough to be buried yet. And there are other cemeteries for that matter, even if she won't be in one of them either though because she'll be cremated."

"What's that?" Katie asked.

"Burned to ashes." Damon explained. It was true actually.

Katie looked from Damon to Stefan.

"Is my mom really…dead?" Katie asked him, making Damon snort.

"I told you she was, so why are you asking _him?" _

"I'm sorry Katie." Stefan said, ignoring Damon. "She is dead."

Katie didn't cry, just let out a helpless little snivel and turned back to Damon.

"Are you really my dad?"

Damon nodded.

"Afraid so." He answered.

Now Katie cried. She cried and cried and Damon kept his firm grip on her arms, unable to either move away or comfort her. It kind of stung that she was more upset to hear that he was her father than that her mother had died. Eventually Stefan stepped in and wriggled Katie out of Damon's grasp, picking her up.

"Let's get you into your PJs and then I'll bring you something to eat in bed, ok?" He said to Katie, who nodded in agreement through her tears and buried her head into Stefan's shoulder as he carried her upstairs.

**XXX**

Damon remained where he was, on his knees on the carpet. After a few moments he rose and poured himself a glass of bourbon, which he drained quickly. He sat down in front of the fire as soon as he had refilled the glass and stared into is, losing track of time. After a while Stefan reappeared.

"She won't eat." He announced. "Says she's not hungry, but she hasn't eaten in all day."

"Where did you put her?" Damon asked, rising and draining his glass.

"Your room, she might as well sleep there tonight again." Stefan replied. "Are you gonna talk to her?"

"Guess I have no choice." Damon raised his eyebrows, putting the empty glass on the table.

"Go easy on her." Stefan said. "She shouldn't have run away, but she had a really rough day and everything about the situation is still new."

"Like I don't know that." Damon snorted as he passed his brother.

He walked upstairs and into his bedroom. Katie was under the cover, actually not looking very well. Her cheeks were red and her eyes still glossy. She sat up as Damon walked in, watching him cautiously as he sat on the bed next to her. Now that the cover had fallen off her the short-sleeved pajama top revealed her already bruised arms. Damon felt a little pang of guilt.

"Stefan tells me you don't wanna eat." He said and Katie shrugged.

"I'm not hungry." She mumbled.

"I figured as much." Damon grabbed a pillow and shoved it behind his back, leaning slightly closer to Katie. "It's time we had a little talk."

"I don't wanna talk either." Katie said boldly. Damon felt irritation coming over him but he managed to sound calm when he said:

"Sorry sweetheart, but you're gonna have to."

Katie glared up at him and sighed when she saw his unyielding gaze. She sunk down a little and crossed her arms over her chest.

"You just have to tell me some things that I need to know." Damon said in a softer tone. "Or…" He added with a sigh. "If it feels better I can get Stefan and you can tell him."

Katie looked a little confused but then she shook her head.

"No." She said in a determined tone. "You can ask me stuff but maybe I don't want to tell anyway. And then I won't tell anyone."

"Fair enough." Damon let out a small chuckle but then turned serious. "Can you tell me about your mom? What was she like lately? Had she changed from how she used to be?"

Katie wriggled where she sat and looked away and Damon could see that she was unsure of whether she should say anything.

"It's ok, Katie." He told her. "You can tell me."

"She has been a little scary, kind of like…" She blushed.

"What?" Damon demanded.

"Kind of like you." Katie mumbled looking down on her knee. "She's been getting really mad really suddenly when I don't know why."

Damon looked down at her without saying anything, just waiting for her to keep going.

"And then." Katie continued as her lip started to tremble. "Yesterday. She came running towards me really, really fast and her face looked like a monster and I was really scared but then my Aunt Katherine came and pushed mom away into a wall…" Once again, tears started creeping down the little girl's cheek.

"But then my mom was angry at Katherine and yelled at her to leave and when she had gone mom was really sad and crying, crying, crying. And she hugged me so hard it felt like she was gonna break me."

"And then you came here?" Damon asked, now knowing what he had needed to: Katie didn't know anything about vampires.

"Yeah, we went in the car and I fell asleep and then mom told me to go knock on the door and that she would be right there but then she wasn't" Katie was crying openly now. "Why didn't she come?" She sobbed. "And why was she so weird?"

"She was…" Damon was thinking fast to figure out a way to explain. "She wasn't herself, she was sick."

"Is that why she…" Katie looked as if she had to push the last word out of herself. "…died?"

"Yeah." Damon said. In a way, what he had said was true. But he still needed to figure something out. "Katie? What about your Aunt Katherine?" He spat the name out. "Who is she?"

"She's my godmother and mom says she moves around a lot because of her work." Katie sniveled. "She comes to visit sometimes but then I hide in my closet until she goes away."

"That's not very polite" Damon said with a smirk.

"I know…" Katie admitted. "But I hate her. She's bitchy."

"I would tell you to watch your language." Damon started. "But I've met Katherine a couple of times so I'll let it slide."

"You have?" Katie's eyes widened. "You don't like her either?"

"I most certainly don't."

"You don't like anyone?"

"I like you well enough."

Katie played with the cover, stroking the silky fabric and looking as if she wanted to say something more.

"What is it, Katie?" Damon asked her.

"Are you really my dad?" Katie mumbled without looking up at him.

"Yes, I still am." Damon confirmed. "It hasn't changed in the last forty-five minutes and I can give you a heads up: it's not likely to change in the next forty-five minutes either. It's kind of set in stone."

"Did you know where I was?" Katie looked up at him shyly.

"No." Damon replied. "I knew that you existed because I knew when your mother was pregnant with you but then she moved away before you were born so I didn't know if you were a boy or girl or anything." Or that you were my kid, he added in his thoughts.

"Would you have liked me more if I was a boy?" Katie asked. She wasn't crying anymore, even if her face was still wet with tears. Now she looked mostly curious.

"No." Damon said firmly. "Don't be stupid. Have you _met _any boys your own age?" He rolled his eyes but then said in a more serious tone: "It doesn't matter if you're a boy or girl or whatever. I'm your dad either way and I promise that I'll take care of you and not disappear like your mother did. Ok?"

"Ok." Katie nodded, letting out another little sob when Damon mentioned her mother.

"But you have to promise me not to disappear either." Damon took her head in his hands and looked her in the eyes. "What you did today, running off like that, was an incredibly stupid, not to mention a dangerous thing to do. From now on, you're not allowed to leave the house on your own and if you do, I'll make sure there are consequences. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Good girl." Damon mumbled, wiping her tears away with his thumbs before letting go. "Now, are you sure you don't want to eat something before bed?"

"I'm feeling a little sick." Katie said and leaned back against the pillows. "And I already brushed my teeth."

"All right then." Damon pulled the cover up over her and stroked her unruly dark hair back from her face with his other hand. "Hm." He muttered and placed his hand on her forehead. "You've a fever. Maybe you caught cold or something." He burrowed his eyes into hers. "I'll let you rest but if you start feeling worse, you call me. Ok?"

"Ok" Katie mumbled with her eyes closed, already drifting to sleep.

Damon made sure one last time that she was tucked in and then went towards the door. He wasn't really surprised when Katie called him in a drowsy voice:

"Damon?"

"Yeah?" He looked at her sideways with one hand on the doorknob.

"If I'll be staying here, will I have my own room?"

"You won't just be staying here, Katie." Damon corrected her. "You'll be living here. And yes, I already told you this morning that we'll set you up in a room of your own. I'll show you all the bedrooms tomorrow and you can pick one."

"How many do you have?" Katie asked in awe.

"Apart from mine and Stefan's, there are six." Damon replied, smiling slightly at Katie's amazed look when he told her.

"And I can pick whichever I want?"

"Sure."

"Cool." Katie smiled a little as she lay back down and rolled over on her side to sleep.

Damon rolled his eyes when he shut the lights off, as if to prove to himself that he thought her amazement was ridiculous and childish but inside, he was smiling too.


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you for your encouraging reviews! It's amazing to know that people actually like the story. Really, thank you! Keep reviewing and telling me where you want the story to go. ****Priya****: interesting idea but I think it will be a while before Katie grows up. And then I'll see! She will meet Klaus in later chapters however. ****LiveBreatheVampires****: you simply deserve a shout-out. Thank you for all your reviews!**

**Onto the story. Sorry about this update taking a while but here's a long chapter. Katie gets sick, as some of you, like ****Totter4****, guessed she would be…**

**XXX**

Katie woke up from a nausea that was excruciating. Her stomach felt as if it had been turned inside out and her head was pounding. She needed to throw up. Right away. She tumbled out of bed, falling on her knees because she got whirled up in the sheets. She began stumbling towards the bathroom and barely made it to the toilet before she started to vomit. There was barely anything to throw up given all she had eaten the previous day were the mushrooms she had found in the forest. She kept gagging even after there wasn't even gall anymore and it started to hurt her throat. She was shaking from exhaustion and only vaguely realized that someone had come up behind her and was now holding her hair back, with another strong hand on her shoulder, as she dry heaved. Katie started to sob; she wanted it to stop. Eventually she no longer felt the need to throw up and she fell back into her dad's arms where he was sitting on his knees behind her. Katie burrowed her face into his black shirt and cried silently. She was hurting everywhere and she was drenched by cold sweat.

"I thought I told you call me if you were feeling worse." Damon said as he rose with Katie in his arms, flushing the toilet before making his way back into the bedroom. He sat Katie down on the bed, feeling her forehead.

"I'm cold." Katie wailed. "But I'm sweaty. Why am I cold if I'm sweaty?"

"Because you have a fever." Damon explained with a frown. "Pretty high too, and you wouldn't throw up or have this kind of temperature if it was just a cold. Did you eat something yesterday? Did anyone give you anything?"

"I found some mushrooms in the forest." Katie sniveled.

"Well, that explains it." Damon muttered. "Stefan!" He called out and seconds later, Stefan appeared at the door.

"How is she?" He asked, stepping inside.

"You have eyes, see for yourself." Damon snapped. "I need you to look something up. Katie" he said, turning to his daughter. "What did the mushrooms look like?"

"Light brown…" Katie frowned, trying to remember. "Big. I don't remember anything else."

"I'll check it out." Stefan said and disappeared.

"Figure out whether I need to get her to a hospital!" Damon called after him.

"Hospital?" Katie burst out, starting to cry again. "I don't want to go to a hospital, I hate hospitals."

"Let's hope we don't have to." Damon said through clenched teeth and crouched down before Katie, putting his hands on her shoulders. "What were you thinking, eating mushrooms that you didn't know what they were?"

"I was hungry." Katie wriggled in his grip.

"Never eat stuff that you don't recognize, especially not things that grow outside. Ok?"

"Ok." Katie sobbed. "Damon?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm really, really cold."

She was shaking, Damon noticed, and her pajamas were all wet from her cold sweating.

"I'll be right back" He said, putting the cover around her where she sat and walked quickly out of the room. When he was out, he vampire sped downstairs and grabbed Katie's second pair of pajamas, conveniently a flannel one that was warmer than the one she was wearing. He took a pair of woolen socks and the hoodie as well and he sped back upstairs. He went into the room and almost stopped when he saw how pale and vulnerable Katie looked. She had lain down and curled up into a ball but she was still shaking from the cold.

"Here we go." Damon mumbled as he pulled the cover off of her.

"No…" She whimpered.

"You have to change Katie; you're all wet."

Katie was too exhausted to change herself so Damon wriggled her out of the cotton t-shirt and pants and helped her on with the new ones. He finally zipped up her hoodie and had her lie down again, tucking her in before he went to get an extra blanket from the cupboard. He draped it over her and sat down beside her.

"Better?" He asked her and she nodded tiredly. "Good" He said, stroking her hair.

"I think I found the mushroom Katie ate." Stefan had come back and he was holding a dictionary over everything that grew in these parts. "It's poisonous and it makes humans sick and feverish but it's not fatal or particularly dangerous. She'll be better in a few days."

"You hear that?" Damon asked Katie. "You'll be ok. But you were lucky this time; if it had been a different kind of mushroom it could have been much worse." He felt her shiver and added in a softer tone: "And now you've learned your lesson so we won't talk about it anymore, just get you better as soon as possible."

Stefan walked around the bed and sat down on the other side.

"Do you want anything, Katie?" He asked her. "Water maybe?"

"Yes please." Katie mumbled.

"Grab the aspirin too, will you?" Damon added as Stefan was leaving.

"Damon?" Katie asked quietly.

"What?"

"Are you mad at me?" Katie looked up at him with a worried look in her eyes. "Because I ate the mushrooms?"

"No, like I said: you've learned your lesson and I doubt you'll ever do anything like it again." Damon smirked at her. "Being mad at you for it would just be a waste of breath for me so don't you worry your little head about it anymore."

"Here Katie." Stefan was back, handing Katie a glass of water and placing the aspirin on the nightstand. "I'll go to bed, call me if you need me." He told Damon who nodded.

"Careful." Damon said as Katie drank thirstily. "If you drink too fast you'll just throw up again." He took the glass from her and put it on the nightstand, and then he took an aspirin from the packet, splitting it in too.

"I'll give you a half of this now and if your heads still hurting in an hour I'll give you the other half." He helped her swallow the pill with some more water and placed the glass back on the table.

"Ok, now you try to sleep." Damon told Katie and made sure she was lying comfortably. "Do you want me to leave you alone or do you want me to stay?"

"Stay." Katie said without hesitation. "Please." She added.

"So I'll stay." Damon said and went to switch the lights off. He went back to the bed and walked around it to lie down on the other side, propping himself up with some pillows. He had expected Katie to want to hold his hand but he was surprised when she moved under her blankets, coming towards him and snuggling into his side. Damon put an arm around her and held her close. The relief of her not being fatally ill came over him. For the second time in less than twenty-four hours he had been worried sick when he thought she might be in danger. How the hell had this happened?

**XXX**

Damon stayed with Katie all night, not sleeping much because she seemed to be fighting a war in her sleep. A few times during the night she woke up gasping for air but fell right back to sleep when he patted her back and stroked her hair. Now it was ten thirty in the morning and Katie had been sleeping without interruption since around six. From the look of it she could use the heavy sleep and Damon was very relieved. He very carefully lifted Katie's head from where it was now resting, on his stomach. She had twisted a lot in her sleep and after a while he had stopped bothering to turn her around. Who said your head had to be in one particular end of the bed anyway. Damon placed a pillow underneath Katie's head as a substitute for his own body and moved towards the window. He peeked through the curtains to see it was another grey day; the rain seemed to be hanging in the air. He walked out of the room and sped downstairs into the kitchen, where he found Elena by the coffee-maker.

"Fancy meeting you here" He said with a smirk and went over to grab himself a mug. "What happened to your baby brother bonding trip thing?"

"Nothing." Elena said. "It was just for one night and we left early this morning."

"M-hm." Damon took a sip from his coffee and sat down. "So you haven't heard that I seem to have female doppelgänger?"

"Stefan did call me." Elena admitted and sat down at the table. "And he told me she was sick, how is she now?"

"Sleeping." Damon shrugged. "She'll be ok, physically. Getting over the fact that her mom ditched her on a stranger's doorstep before she ran off and killed herself might be harder."

"God, poor thing." Elena shook her head. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

"If you can help me decorate a room for her that would be appreciated" Damon sat down opposite her. "Because there's no way in hell I'm ever trusting Caroline to do my shopping again."

Elena laughed at that and checked her watch.

"Stefan should be back soon." She declared. "He was just going out to get some firewood, I'll go wait in his room."

"Fine." Damon rose from the chair and walked over to the fridge. He drained a blood bag from the fridge door and threw it in the trash before picking out some vegetables and chicken stock. Not to brag, but in a different life he would have made an excellent housewife.

As the chicken soup was on the stove he went upstairs a couple of times to check on Katie. She was sleeping soundly. Around noon Damon decided he would bring some soup to her whether she was awake or not. He needed to properly check her temperature and he rummaged through the medicine cabinet for quite a while before he found a thermometer. He hadn't needed one in a very long while. He poured some steaming soup into a bowl and put it on a tray together with the thermometer and a glass of water. He brought it all upstairs and put the tray on the floor beside the bed before sitting down next to Katie's head. He felt her forehead. Her temperature seemed to have gone down slightly. Damon stroked her cheek softly with a few of his fingers. Katie stirred in her sleep, and then opened her eyes.

"Hi there." Damon said, looking down at her. "How are you feeling?"

"A little better." She sat up, turned around and swung her legs over the bedside so she was sitting next to Damon.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, missy." Damon said sternly, lifting her up and making her sit at the head of the bed. "You're not getting out of bed anytime today." He put the cover around her and placed a couple of pillows behind her back to support her.

"I brought you some soup." He said, picking up the bowl.

"I'm not hungry." Katie told him.

"Too bad, because you're gonna eat it even if I have to force it down your throat." Damon said firmly and Katie's eyes widened.

"I'm not trying to be mean, Katie." Damon said in a softer tone. "But you haven't eaten in days and if you don't have something you won't be able to build your strength up and get better."

"Ok." Katie sighed. "I understand."

"I promise it's good." Damon said, blowing on the soup before bringing the bowl to her mouth.

She hesitated but then sipped on it. She cracked a little smile.

"It's good." She said.

"Told you so." Damon winked at her. He sat by her and helped her drink until the bowl was empty and then placed it back on the tray, exchanging her glass of water from last night for the new one.

"That wasn't so bad now, was it?" He asked her.

"No." She admitted and leaned back with a weak smile.

"I have to check your temperature." Damon explained, picking up the thermometer. "Open your mouth."

"Why?" Katie frowned.

"So I can check your temperature." Damon repeated slowly, rolling his eyes at her.

"Out thermometer at home goes in the ear and then you click it."

"This is an old one." Damon explained. "This one goes under your tongue so please open up so I can take your temperature."

Katie did what he said, still looking a little skeptical. With the thermometer sticking out of her mouth, she looked like a poster child for a pharmacy from the fifties. Damon let out a laugh and she glared at him, unable to talk because of the thermometer. They sat in silence until Damon figured it would be done and took it out of Katie's mouth.

"Hm." He muttered. "A hundred-and-two degrees. Your head still hurting?"

"Yeah." Katie replied.

Damon fetched the aspirin, getting one out from the chart.

"I'll give you a whole one this time." He told her and helped her swallow the pill with water. Katie coughed a little and Damon patted her back as he placed the glass back on the nightstand.

"You'll feel better soon." He told her and swung his legs up, stretching out next to his daughter. "You just need to rest."

"I hate being sick." Katie mumbled. "It's so boring."

Damon snorted. "Tell me about it." He turned his head to look at Katie. "Have you been sick a lot before?"

"I had pneu…pneumonia." She had a little trouble pronouncing the word. "When I was five. I had to go to the hospital and there were needles and stuff." She didn't appear to want to think or talk about it.

Damon understood now why she had been so horrified at the thought of going to the hospital.

"Are _you_ sick a lot?" Katie asked Damon.

"Not exactly." He chuckled. "I never get sick."

"Lucky you." Katie sighed and was so quiet for a while that Damon thought she had fallen back to sleep. Then she spoke: "Damon?"

"What?"

"My mom…" She started. "When I'm sick or anything… She always reads to me and I really, really like that because I love books."

"You love books?" Damon let out in a surprised tone. He realized that he hadn't even thought to ask her what her interests were and what she liked to do but he felt happy that she liked to read since it was his own favorite pastime.

"Yeah." Katie said, looking up at him. "Do you?"

"Sure do." Damon smiled at her, raising his eyebrows. "Are you asking me to read to you?"

"Noo…" Katie answers were floating in a way he hadn't heard before. "Only if you want to." She mumbled.

Damon realized that she might be a little scared to ask him things. Which he didn't really mind, she would be easier to handle that way. And she would be much happier whenever he said yes.

"I guess I could read to you." He said and felt warmth spreading in his body when a happy smile lit up Katie's whole face.

"Really? Thank you, Damon!" She exclaimed.

"You're welcome." Damon smiled back. "What kind of books do you like?"

"Real books." Katie said determinedly. "Not books for children. They have them at school and they're all stupid. I don't believe just anything just because I'm little."

Damon was amused by her strong opinions and also because he wondered what the "just anything" that she didn't believe might be.

"There are good books for children too." He said. "Just like there are bad books for adults. I only have books for adults here though…" He reached over and looked through the pile of books by the side of the bed. He ran his finger over the hardbacks until one caught his eye. "Have you read the Hunchback of Notre Dame?" Damon asked Katie and she shook her head.

"No." She replied in a slightly grumpy. "Mom says it's too sad and terrible and that I have to wait until I'm older."

Damon noted that this was the second time during this conversation that Katie had talked about her mother in the present tense. He chose to ignore it, thinking that she just forgot herself.

"Well, new rules." He declared. "It's a classic and it's _nothing _against what they write today. So, I'll start from the beginning." Damon flung open the book.

"Wait!" Katie exclaimed as he was about to start reading. She came closer to him, putting her head on his shoulder so she could see the pages.

"There are not too many pictures in this one." Damon informed her.

"I know." She little girl looked up at him with those big blue eyes, still glossy from the fever. "I want to look at the words."

"Why do you even want me to read to you if you're going to read at the same time?" Damon burst out, a little annoyed.

"Just because." Katie said innocently and Damon realized that he would give in to her no matter what reason she gave.

"Fine then." He muttered. "All right, here we go:"

He started reading. Every now and then he glanced down at Katie, whose eyes ran over the sentences as he read them. She was starting to look a lot perkier so he kept on reading. After a while he noticed that Katie's breathing had deepened and he stopped reading, looking down again to see that she had fallen asleep, her head had fallen slightly so that it was now resting on his chest. Damon put the book down and put the arm closest to Katie around her, placing his hand on her little head and burying his fingers in her soft mass of dark hair. It was something between wavy and curly, just as his had been once. He moved his hand to stroke it back from her face to look at her the way he had found himself doing more than once these past couple of days. He still found it hard to believe that he had this little girl that was his daughter. Of course, he had known about her since he found out all those years ago that Hannah was expecting her but until he had realized that Katherine was involved he hadn't thought it was his; he hadn't thought it possible. And then the bitch had twisted Hannah's mind against him and she had disappeared. Convinced he wouldn't be fit to be a father, Damon hadn't bothered looking for her. She was better off without him, even if she was with Katherine. And he had told himself that he didn't care anyway, that he didn't _want _to be a parent. Yet now, here he was, watching in awe as his daughter slept. He still wasn't certain he could do this, and that he would be able to care for her but he had realized that he wouldn't be able to trick himself into thinking that he didn't want to try.

**XXX**

"Oh my god, she's so cute." Elena whispered, trying her best to be quiet. She and Stefan were in Damon's room, looking on as he and Katie slept. They had gone in to see if Damon needed any help and for Elena to meet Katie and they had found the father and daughter sleeping soundly. Damon was lying on the bed, with a book upside down on his stomach and his arm around Katie, whose head was sticking up from the covers and resting on Damon's chest. Stefan took his phone out with a grin and snapped a picture. Damon woke up from the flash that Stefan forgot to turn off and immediately burrowed his eyes into his brother's.

"Idiot." He hissed. He looked down at Katie and carefully lifted her off him, putting her head on the pillow. He tucked her in and cocked his head at Stefan and Elena to follow him out the door. Elena remained where she stood for a few seconds, looking at Katie. She couldn't believe how much the little girl looked like Damon; he hadn't been kidding when he said she was his female doppelgänger. She snuck out of the room and joined Stefan and Damon in the hall. Damon closed the door carefully and went downstairs, not looking back to see if Stefan and Elena were following him. They did follow him, into the parlor where he poured himself a drink and sat down on the couch.

"Sorry, Damon." Stefan sat down in an armchair and Elena placed herself at the other end of the couch with Damon. Stefan continued: "I just couldn't resist."

"You could have woken Katie up with the damn flash." Damon muttered. "She needs to sleep."

"Oh my god." Elena shook her head in disbelief. "You'd almost think that you care, Damon."

"Why wouldn't I care?" Damon said nonchalantly, as if he wasn't a manic serial killer who repeatedly hurt everyone he knew. "She's my daughter, Elena."

"I know, but…" Elena shrugged and flashed him a smile. "You're cute with her."

"Don't go too far now, or I might not be so cute with you." Damon warned her.

Stefan listened to their conversation with an amused look on his face. Then he turned serious and asked his brother:

"Is Katie feeling better?"

"Seems like it." Damon shrugged. "She ate a little before and she wanted me to read to her so now she probably just needs to rest."

"We should let her get up to watch a movie or something later." Stefan suggested. "Elena and I could go get something and Katie can meet her."

"Whatever." Was all Damon said but coming from him it was agreement. "I'm warning you though; don't get anything that's too much of a kids movie. She won't want to watch it. Definitely nothing animated, she likes real people."

"There are…" Stefan started but Damon interrupted him:

"Yes, there are animated films that are very much for adults, I know." He rolled his eyes. "But this time, we'll just do it the way she wants."

Elena and Stefan exchanged looks and grins and Damon sighed.

"It's just because she's sick. And I don't want her to throw a tantrum." He added.

Nobody seemed to believe him.

**XXX**

"Damon!" A weak voice cried from upstairs.

Elena and Stefan had just left for the video store and Damon was alone in the quiet house. Well, not quite. He sped upstairs and into his room. Katie was sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes. They were slightly red from crying.

"What is it Katie?" Damon sat down next to her on the bed and without even realizing he was doing it, he took her hand.

"I had a bad dream." Katie explained.

"Huh." Damon said. "You're having a lot of those. Wanna tell me about this one?"

"No" Katie shook her head determinedly. "It was silly. I want to get out of bed."

"Oh, really?" Damon raised an eyebrow. "Well, you have to pass a few tests first before I can let you."

"What tests?" Katie frowned suspiciously.

Damon placed his hand on her forehead.

"This is the first one." He told her. "And you just passed, your fever is down."

"The second test is that you have to promise me you'll eat something."

"Ok." Katie nodded in agreement.

"And then you have to show me you can stay calm." Damon concluded. "You may watch a movie with me, Stefan and his girlfriend but no jumping around or running away. You sit quietly and when the movie's over you go straight back to bed. And then we'll see how you're feeling tomorrow. Ok?"

"Ok." Katie sighed.

"Good girl." Damon smirked at her. "Let's go downstairs straight away and get started on test number two."

**XXX**

He sat Katie down at the kitchen table as he cooked, wrapping a blanket around her and providing her with paper and some drawing coal that he'd found in a drawer. She appeared to be fully content with that, starting to draw instantly with a concentrated look on her face. Damon focused on getting the pasta boiling and throwing together a tomato sauce that wouldn't be good for Katie's still sensitive stomach but that Elena might like. He was a much better cook than Stefan and he definitely wanted Elena to know that. Once everything was on the stove, living its own life for ten minutes or so, Damon looked at what Katie was drawing and almost let out a gasp. She had very efficiently used the coal to create different shades of grey and black, and Damon could tell she was actually quite a little artist. However, the motive she had chosen for her artwork he found questionable. She had drawn a vampire, or more precisely, her mother. She, of course, didn't know that it was a vampire she had drawn. Damon was actually impressed by how well Katie's drawing, childish as it was, depicted Hannah's crooked nose and pointy chin and many other features of hers for that matter. But she had fangs and veins under her eyes, traits that had been exaggerated to the extent that Damon almost thought he was looking at a caricature. Albeit a pretty good one.

"You shouldn't draw things like that." He growled at Katie, ripping the drawing from the table and putting it on the kitchen counter.

"Why not?" Katie whimpered.

"Because I said so!" Damon looked sternly at her and she looked down on her knees. "What I mean is", Damon said in a softer tone, "Why don't you draw something happier? Like flowers or hearts or something?"

"Flowers or hearts?" Katie looked skeptical.

"Or something." Damon repeated, pouring the water from the pasta. "Rabbits, little birdies, whatever. Happy things."

"I'll draw a hotel." Katie decided and got started.

"Weirdo." Damon muttered to himself so she wouldn't hear.

"Have you ever stayed in a hotel, Damon?" Katie asked him.

"It has been known." Damon put some of the pasta in a bowl separately for Katie and mixed the rest with the sauce before he portioned it into three bowls. He could hear Elena and Stefan coming back and heard as they walked into the living room to set up for the movie.

"I've never stayed in a hotel." Katie shared. "I've never been _anywhere._"

"You're here now aren't you?" Damon said absentmindedly as he put the bowls and some silverware onto a tray, which he lifted. "Come on, let's go watch a movie." He said to Katie and cocked his head for her to walk out with him.

"Where do I put these?" She asked, referring to the paper and the coal.

"Just leave them." Damon sighed. "Come on."

Katie finally went with him and they walked to the living room, where Elena and Stefan had already positioned themselves onto the couch. Damon set the tray down on the sofa table and looked back at Katie, who remained shyly in the doorway. Elena stood up and walked over to her.

"Hi Katie!" She said with a smile on her face. "I've heard so much about you. I'm Elena."

"Hi, nice to meet you." Katie smiled back timidly. "Are you Stefan's girlfriend?"

Elena kept smiling.

"I am indeed, you know your stuff." She put a hand on Katie's shoulder to lead her towards the couch. "And _I _happen to know you're sick so you shouldn't be standing up." She made a face at Damon, who snorted.

"Yeah, Katie." He said, walking over and picking her up. "It's time to take the second test." He sat her down in a huge armchair, placing a cushion behind her back and wrapping a blanket around her, before setting the pasta bowl in her lap and handing her a fork. He sat down on the couch closest to Katie and grabbed a bowl for himself, putting his feet up on the table.

"What are we watching?" He asked Stefan and Elena with a smirk.

"Paper Moon." Stefan replied, leaning back and taking Elena's hand as he pressed play on the remote.

Damon let out a chuckle, guessing they had motives for choosing a film about a handsome and womanizing con man who ends up having to take a little girl, most likely his daughter, along for the ride after her mother dies.

"Have you seen it, Katie?" Elena asked Katie, who shook her head no.

They started watching and eating the pasta. Apart from Katie, who just picked in hers, hardly eating anything.

"Katie." Damon said warningly as he noticed. "Mind telling me how it is that we have all finished our food and you've barely even started yours?"

Katie sighed, putting a forkful of pasta in her mouth and chewing slowly. Damon looked back onto the screen, realizing he hadn't seen the film since it came out in 1973. When Katie had eaten almost half of the pasta she looked over at Damon.

"I can't eat any more, my stomach hurts." She mumbled.

Damon burrowed his eyes into hers and then shrugged, taking the bowl from her.

"It's ok, Katie." He said reassuringly. "You did well."

Katie let out a relieved sigh that he wasn't sending her straight back to bed and she kept watching the movie. After a while she started squirming and looking uncomfortable. Damon noticed but waited until she said something herself. Eventually she got out of the armchair and crept over to the couch, climbed up next to Damon and cupped her hands to whisper in his ear:

"I want to go to bed."

Damon would have said ok to that instantly if it wasn't for the tears that glittered in her eyes and made him want to know the reason.

"We're not even halfway through." He said lightly. "Why would you want to go to bed now?"

Katie looked away, shifting back and forth where she sat on her knees. Damon put an arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap, noticing how Stefan and Elena looked on with interest.

"Tell me, Katie." Damon demanded silently. "Don't you like the movie?"

"No." Katie admitted in a whisper.

"Why not?"

"Because…" Katie seemed to struggle to find the words as more tears formed in her eyes. "The little girl is all alone and nobody wants her. The man just wants to get rid of her and her mom's dead and she has to move away…" Her lip trembled and Damon understood. The movie felt a little too close to home for her.

"_Idiot." _He mimicked to Stefan, knowing he must have heard everything Katie had just said even if she had been very silent.

"Hey." He whispered to Katie. "If you keep watching, it's gonna get a lot better. It's got a happy ending and if you don't see the rest, you're gonna miss out on all the fun parts."

Katie still seemed skeptical. She refused to look at the screen and instead she started unbuttoning and buttoning the buttons of Damon's sleeve, the one covering the arm that was still around her waist.

"Hey" Damon said again, leaning his head closer to Katie's and resisting the instinct to smack her fingers. "I'll tell you a secret. The man _does _want her; he just doesn't realize it yet and he's not used to children and doesn't know how to talk to her. But he'll get better and then they'll start to like each other very, very much."

Stefan and Elena were no longer paying attention to the movie, just watching as Damon talked to his daughter.

"Really?" Katie looked at him.

"Really" Damon said with a smirk. "It's a very sentimental Hollywood flick so it's pretty much unavoidable. Now will you stop playing with my shirt before you make me crazy?"

"Sorry." Kate mumbled and let go of his sleeve, and then she actually looked back at the screen. Damon smirked, content with how well he had handled the situation. And also kind of content with the fact that Katie showed no sign of wanting to get back into the armchair, but remained on his lap and leaning her head back against his chest. Damon reached with his free hand for the blanket still on the armchair and draped it over Katie. He wondered what he had been so worried about. He was a god damn natural.

**XXX**

Katie fell asleep before the movie was over. Damon noticed but kept her where she was, just tilting her slightly so she was lying down more than she was sitting up.

"You surprise me, Damon." Elena said once the credits had started rolling. Damon raised his eyebrows, gazing over at her. "You're actually not that bad with her."

"You should have seen him yesterday." Stefan scoffed.

Damon shot him an annoyed glance.

"I'm not saying he doesn't have a lot to learn." Elena clarified to Stefan. "But Katie seems to like him, which is a decent enough start."

Upon hearing Elena's words, Damon couldn't help but smiling down at the sleeping little girl. Elena noticed.

"You seem to really like her too." She said to Damon.

"She's not bad." Damon shrugged. "For an annoying child, she's not _that _annoying."

Stefan turned off the television.

"It's still early." He declared. "Elena, did you say Bonnie and Caroline wanted to hang out with us at the grill?"

"Yeah." Elena rose from the couch. "We should get going. Do need any help with putting Katie to bed Damon?" she asked.

"No, I'm good." Damon rose as well, carefully holding Katie in his arms. "I'll do it. She'll need her own room soon though and like I said before: feel free to help with that."

"Sure, I'd love to." Elena smiled. "I'll be over tomorrow and we can have a look."

"Great." Damon smirked. "Now go, before my brother gets jealous."

Stefan rolled his eyes and Damon chuckled as he and Elena left. He carried Katie upstairs and put her down in his bed. He stood at the side of the bed for a while, watching the little girl as she settled in her sleep, rolling over on her side and curling into a ball. Damon stepped out of the room, switching the lights off as he left, and went down to the basement to get a blood bag. He would have to get used to hiding them and drink blood only when Katie didn't see. Stefan would have to do the same; Damon didn't want Katie to find out this particular thing by accident. That would probably destroy her. No, they would have to wait until it was safe, until Katie was more settled in, before dropping the vampire bomb. In the meantime they would just have to make sure to keep her out of danger.

After Damon had had enough blood he went back upstairs, aimlessly wandering around the house until he found himself back in his bedroom. He looked at his watch and snorted; it was only nine thirty. It made him feel ridiculous but he was thinking that since he couldn't get out anyway, he might as well go to bed early and read a good book. If he was here he could keep an eye on Katie in case she got worse again. And she wouldn't have to wake up alone in case she had more nightmares. He moaned to himself, again wondering when he had become like this. He got out of his shoes, dark jeans and black button down shirt and put on a simple black t-shirt before brushing his teeth and going to bed. He picked up an old copy of Gone with the Wind, because he felt like reading something he already knew he liked. Every now and then he glanced over at Katie, each time finding that she was sleeping calmly. Well, not calmly; she moved around a lot and stirred in her sleep but she didn't seem to be having nightmares. Eventually Damon started to drift off to sleep himself, or at least until…

"Ow!" He burst out when Katie's foot suddenly kicked him in the face. He sighed and shoved her little leg away, reaching over to turn her. She woke up briefly and mumbled something inaudible before clasping his hand in hers and going back to sleep. Damon let out a quiet chuckle at the thought of what had just happened and switched of the lights.

**XXX**

**Sorry for the somewhat abrupt ending but I promise there'll be more soon. Hope you liked it and please review to let me know what you think!**

**xo**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you for the continuously amazing reviews! Your support makes me so happy. In the chapter after this one I'll explain a little about what this slightly AU is like. I gather you've already noticed that even if the story takes place around the same time as season three, I've written out some things that happen in the TV series. So don't worry if you think it's weird, I'll explain myself soon!**

**Here's another long chapter, I will try to keep them longer from now on! I hope you'll like it and that you don't find it boring that there's still mainly dialogue and discussion and not many exciting things happening. Enjoy and thank you for reading!**

**XXX**

Katie woke early the next morning, feeling much better than she had yesterday. She yawned and stretched out. She was lying on her stomach at the foot of the bed. How come she never woke up where she went to sleep, she wondered to herself as she rolled over on her back and rubbed her eyes. She sat up and looked around the room. The curtains were open but it was not yet light outside.

"Morning, early bird." Damon moaned and sat up at the head of the bed. "Do you always wake up before the crack of dawn?"

"Yes." Katie replied.

"Figures." Damon muttered.

"I didn't yesterday!" Katie remembered.

"Yesterday you were sick" Damon snorted with a frown. "It doesn't count."

Katie sighed and started fidgeting with the cover.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled, looking up at him with a little sigh, making Damon let out a short laugh.

"I forgive you." He said with a smirk. "_However" _he added, "Since you kept me up last night with your, hm, _intense _dreaming, I'm gonna need another hour or so. Do you wanna watch some TV?"

"Can I finish watching the movie?"

"Paper Moon?" Damon said in surprise. "Sure. I thought you didn't like it though?"

"But you said it had a happy ending." Katie jumped up on all fours and crawled over towards Damon. "I want to see for myself."

"Of course you do." Damon got out of the bed and started walking towards the door. "You can watch in here, I'll go get it."

He vampire sped downstairs, all the way to the basement, taking the opportunity to drain a blood bag before he sped up to the living room to get the DVD. He went back to his bedroom and set it all up for Katie to watch. His plasma screen was actually not set into the wall the way it looked at first sight, but it could be turned so you could watch it from the bed. He got back in bed with the remote and pressed play.

"Can I watch from the beginning?" Katie asked.

"Fine by me." Damon said; it meant he would get to sleep longer.

He was unable to go back to sleep however, he kept watching to see if Katie would be upset by the movie. He felt stupid, since the reason for why he thought she should watch it in here was so that he would be close in case that happened. When an hour had gone by and Katie was still totally fine but Damon hadn't slept at all he gave up and went to have a shower while Katie's eyes were still glued to the TV. He came back with a towel around his hips and quickly got dressed and then he sat on the bed next to his daughter and watched the last five minutes of the film with her.

"What did you think?" He asked her as the credits started to roll.

"I like it now." Katie declared. "I'm glad I saw the ending."

Damon smirked as he turned off the TV.

"Can I have a shower?" Katie looked up at him.

"Sure, go ahead." Damon smiled innocently. "You know how it works now, right?"

Katie shuddered slightly at the thought of what had happened the other day but then she realized Damon was teasing her and she snorted before she walked into the bathroom.

"I'll put some clothes for you on the bed." Damon said and walked out of the room. "When you're changed, just come downstairs for breakfast."

"Ok!" Katie called.

Damon sped downstairs and picked up all the clothes that were still in the parlor. Katie might as well choose for herself. He went back up and quickly made the bed before putting all the clothes out. Since he heard Katie was still showering her used his vampire speed to refold some of the clothes that had been messed up. He walked back downstairs and heard Katie turning off the shower just as he had gotten out the door.

"Hey." Stefan said, coming towards Damon through the hallway.

"Why are you up so early?" Damon snarled.

"Elena is sleeping over." Stefan explained. "I thought I'd make her some waffles."

"Well, aren't you chivalrous?" Damon muttered as they walked downstairs together. "Mind making some extra for the tiny one?"

"Obviously I wasn't going to make them for just my girlfriend and myself." Stefan rolled his eyes. "I was gonna put some of the batter in the fridge for you to finish but you're saying Katie's already up?"

"She's been awake for almost two hours." Damon sighed. "I'm starting to think she was easier to handle when she was sick."

"Don't say that." Stefan opened the fridge and took out the eggs and a carton of milk. "It's good that she's feeling better."

Damon said nothing and started helping his brother make the batter in silence. Of course it was good that Katie was feeling better but that would also mean that she would soon be wanting to go outside, maybe even start school. Damon was not so sure that it was a good idea for her to leave the house at all, not when there were hybrids around. It had been one thing if she had looked a little more like Hannah but that wasn't exactly the case. Like Hannah had said in the letter; Katie was all him. If she was seen in Mystic Falls nobody would doubt that she was related to Damon and hybrids or vampires who knew about half vamps would begin to suspect what she was sooner or later. Damon did not want that, it was enough that he constantly had to save Elena from one danger or the other. He was so deep in thought that he barely noticed as the little doppelgänger of his came into the kitchen, dressed in the red t-shirt with the green embroidered hooded jacket on top, a jean skirt and a pair of zebra-patterned leggings that Caroline had found too hard to resist.

"Hi Katie." Stefan said. "I heard you were feeling better?"

"Yes thank you." Katie replied. "Can I help?"

"Thanks, Katie but it's all done." Stefan smiled at her. "You can help Damon set the table."

"Ok!" Katie smiled back, happily taking the silverware Damon handed her and beginning to set it out by the plates that were already there, as Damon got the glasses. Stefan put the big serving plate of waffles and the syrup on the table before going back to the fridge.

"Do you like orange or apple juice better?" Stefan asked Katie.

"I like either." Katie told him as she climbed up on a chair after Damon pushed her towards it. "I'm really easy when it comes to food." You could tell from how she said the latter that it was something she had been told, probably by her mother, and simply repeated.

"Yesterday you were picky enough." Damon snorted.

"Yesterday I was sick." Katie protested. "So it doesn't count." She smiled triumphantly at Damon, having said the same thing he had earlier concerning her sleep.

"Good morning everyone." A sleepy Elena entered the kitchen as Stefan was pouring orange juice into everyone's glasses.

"Hi Elena!" Katie beamed at her as she came over and kissed her head.

"Did you sleep well, Katie?" Elena said as she sat down and hugged Stefan, who had just sat down on the chair next to hers.

"Yeah, I didn't wake up one single time." Katie looked relieved by the fact. "Thank you!" She said to Stefan as he handed her a plate with a waffle drenched in syrup on it.

"Woke me up a couple of times though." Damon said, pouring maple syrup on his waffle and starting to cut it. "Seriously Katie, we should set you up with a kickboxing bag. Then maybe you wouldn't have to let out all that aggression when you sleep. Here, give me those" He added, taking Katie's knife and fork from her and starting to cut her waffle in a much quicker rate than she had managed to.

"She kicked you?" Stefan asked Damon, putting a forkful of waffle into his mouth.

"More than once, I may add." Damon replied, handing Katie's fork back to her.

"Are you mad?" Katie looked up at Damon with big eyes. "I didn't mean to kick you, I promise."

Damon's eyebrow twitched.

"No, I'm not mad." He muttered, avoiding Elena's and Stefan's gazes as he started eating. "But" He said in a louder voice "I think it's time you had your own room. After breakfast you'll pick one and then Stefan and Elena can go pick up paint and maybe some new bed sheets and curtains. How about that?" He smirked and noticed how Stefan rolled his eyes.

"That would be very, _very _nice of you." Katie said in such a solemn tone that all the adults burst out laughing.

"It would be our pleasure." Elena smiled at Katie who threw her a weak little smile back.

Stefan and Damon were back to enjoying their waffles and discussing something Alaric had talked about but Elena noticed that Katie ate her waffle on autopilot and not looking very happy.

"Katie, are you ok?" She asked her quietly.

"Uh-huh." Katie said with little sigh. "May I be excused?" She asked Damon. He was deep in discussion with Stefan and just gave her a little wave to confirm it was all right. Katie got off her chair, took her plate and glass and put it in the dishwasher before disappearing out the door.

"Not very observant, are you?" Elena said to Damon and Stefan as soon as Katie was gone.

"What?" Damon frowned.

"You didn't notice that Katie seemed troubled by something?" Elena let out.

"She's always troubled by one thing or the other." Damon shrugged. "She thinks too much."

"Why do you think she was troubled, Elena?" Stefan asked.

Elena started taking the dirty dishes of the table, putting them as well into the dishwasher.

"She just looked sad." She explained. "She didn't seem all that excited about having her own room."

"Well, that's too bad." Damon snorted. "Cause' I won't have her sleeping with me like she's two years old. Not to mention that she kicks and that having her in the bed keep other nightly company out of it."

"Oh my god Damon!" Elena let out, almost breaking a glass as she slammed it into the dishwasher. "You are such an ass. Firstly, she just lost her mother a few days ago. If she's uncomfortable being alone at night it's completely understandable and totally normal. Secondly, speaking of normal, it's nothing strange with a seven-year-old sleeping in her parents' bed. Jeremy used to go to mom and dad's every now and then until he was fourteen! And I'm sure he still would have if they were still alive."

She paused, suddenly looking sad instead of angry. She closed the dishwasher and turned on the coffeemaker.

"All I'm saying is; one of us should talk to Katie and find out what's wrong." She said as Stefan took her hand.

Damon leaned back in his chair, knowing that Elena was right in what she had said. However, he wasn't quite sure that the issue for Katie was that she wanted to keep sleeping in Damon's bed. He had a sense that the root of it all might be something deeper than that and thus being deeper than Damon felt up to handling right now. Or ever.

"I'll talk to her." He heard himself saying.

"Stay calm." Elena told him.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped at her as he rose from the chair.

"I just mean that you have a temper." Elena said and kept his eyes on him. "The fact that you snap and kill people on impulse is an example of that."

"You don't _seriously_ think I would kill Katie out of frustration, do you?" Damon snorted. "Considering all the times you have driven me crazy without me snapping your little neck I think it's obvious that my own daughter won't be in the risk zone."

"Of course I don't think you'll kill her, Damon." Elena said, thinking about how gentle Damon had been with Katie the previous evening. "But you could easily scare her or even hurt her if you lose your temper. Stefan told me about what happened when she washed your shirt."

"That's my cue to leave." Stefan said when he saw the look on Damon's face. "I'll go get a blood bag" He added, affectionately squeezing Elena's shoulder before quickly leaving the kitchen.

Elena crossed her arms over her chest and kept staring at Damon, who glared back.

"Fine, I'll watch my temper." Damon finally let out. "Happy?"

"For now." Elena said with a quick fake smile and walked out to go with Stefan.

Damon sighed and then he as well left the kitchen to go look for Katie. Concentrating his ears, he thought he heard someone move in the library so he went there to get it confirmed that Katie was indeed in there. Under the desk again. She wasn't crying but he could hear her move around a little bit and of course, he could hear her breathing. He walked around the desk and crouched down to look at Katie where she sat, curled up into a ball with her arms around her legs.

"What's the matter, Katie?" Damon asked her after a while, in a tone that probably came off as impatient even though he hadn't meant for it to be. "Are you upset about something?" He asked in a calmer voice.

"No" Katie mumbled and shrugged, trying to avoid Damon's gaze by looking down at her feet.

"There's a rule I forgot to mention: you must not lie to me." Damon said in a stern voice that he thought was very paternal. He placed his hand under Katie's chin and tilted her head up for her to look at him. "Tell me what's wrong." He demanded. "I can see there's something."

He didn't mention that it was Elena who had noticed it first. Katie squirmed a little where she sat and then she shrugged again before letting out a deep sigh; which Damon would have normally found amusing and overdramatic coming from such a small child but since he was getting to know Katie he knew it was real.

"I don't know what's wrong." Katie whimpered. "I just felt sad suddenly. My heart hurts."

She looked up at Damon with shiny eyes.

"I think I miss my mom maybe." She said. "I miss her all the time."

"Of course you do." Damon placed his hand around her foot, stroking it with his thumb. "It's nothing weird about that. But what does that have to do with you getting your own room? I thought you wanted one."

"I did, just…" Katie hesitated and looked away again.

"Just tell me." Damon told her. "I promise I won't get mad if that's what your concern is."

"Ok." Katie swallowed but seemed to relax a little. "Me and mom were supposed to fix my room at home, paint all the walls and I would get new curtains and a new desk… But now we won't anymore. So I'm sad."

"Aha." Damon was silent, thinking about what he should say. Eventually he asked Katie:

"Had you chosen a color yet? For the walls?"

"Yeah." Katie nodded. "Purple. Like plums because they're my favorite fruit."

"So how about we paint the walls in your room here that same color?" Damon suggested. "And we can find pictures of your mom and put them up before we get the curtains and bed sheets, so it'll feel like you're still doing it together with her."

Katie thought about it for a few moments and then nodded slowly.

"Yeah." She said. "I would really like that."

She crawled out from under the desk and rose and to Damon's surprise she hung herself around his neck and hugged him. It was the first time she had done it and he had to admit, as he hugged her back, that the feeling wasn't all bad.

**XXX**

The week that followed ran pretty smoothly. Stefan and Elena helped with Katie's room by going to get the color and picking up the furniture and textiles that they ordered online. They all painted the room together and they had a lot of fun doing it; even Damon. Katie was just slightly taken aback when Stefan and Elena suddenly started giggling at each other and painting on each other's clothes. She would never have dared to do anything like that with Damon in the room! After a week, everything was finally set for Katie to move in. Damon half expected she would be coming into his room anyway though, since she had been having nightmares at least once every night, waking up panting and needing to hold his hand to go back to sleep.

"I love my room, thank you thank you thank you!" Katie said happily when she lay in bed on the first night in her own new bed. Damon, Elena and Stefan were all there to tuck her in.

On their expedition to all the spare bedrooms, Katie had surprised them all by choosing the smallest one, less than half the size of Damon's and Stefan's rooms. It was still a lot bigger than her old room, she claimed. They had painted the walls in the plum purple color and over the bed they had put up a big collage made of pictures of Katie and her mom. Damon had sent Stefan to find Hannah's apartment and since she was dead he hadn't needed an invitation to get in and he had gotten hold of all their photo albums and printed all the pictures on their computer. Then Elena and Katie had made the collage together on a passe-partout in the shape of a big heart. They had gotten Katie lots of white bed sheets and hung up navy blue curtains with silver prints of hearts and stars in different sizes. Damon had made a little trip to the attic and found an old quilt that his and Stefan's mother had made, for Katie to have as her bedspread. However, he told her that it was his great-great grandmother who had made it. Katie had a new desk in dark wood and a matching, huge bookshelf that all the adults had made their contributions to. There were lots of Elena's old books, some of Stefan's and a lot of new books that Damon had gotten for her. All children's books but very carefully chosen. There were also a lot of drawing material and some video games that Elena for some reason had decided that Katie would need. Elena had also brought all of her old clothes from when she was little. Apart from the pink of course. In short; Katie had the room of her dreams. She even had her own bathroom, even if there was only a shower and no bath, but the only thing they had changed in there was decorating some of the tiles with silver stickers in the shape of shells and sea stars, filling up with soap and shampoo and getting some sets of purple towels.

"You're welcome." Damon said with a smirk.

"Yeah, we had so much fun putting all this together." Elena smiled at Katie. "Right Stefan?"

"A lot of fun." Stefan confirmed.

"All right Katie." Damon said, turning of the lights on the nightstand. "Time for bed, sleep tight."

"Don't let the bedbugs bite." Katie filled in with a little giggle and leaned back against the pillows. She closed her eyes and rolled over on her side, tightly squeezing the teddy Elena had given her and that she had decided to name Archibald. Nobody knew why.

"Good night Katie!" said Stefan and Elena as they walked out of the room together.

Damon was about to switch off the ceiling lights and leave when he heard Katie call out after him:

"Damon!"

"What?" He turned, not in the slightest surprised that Katie had come up with something she absolutely had to ask him that couldn't wait till morning.

"What happens if I have a nightmare?" Katie looked seriously worried.

"Then you come get me." Damon said lightly. "My room is just three doors away; I can leave the door open. Do you want me to leave your door ajar so there's a little light?"

"No thank you." Katie shook her head. "I like it dark when I sleep."

"Sure." Damon smirked. "Anything else you need to get out of your system or is this good night?"

Katie thought about it for a moment and then shook her head again.

"No." she said firmly. "Good night."

"Good night, Katie." Damon said, switching of the lights and walking out, closing the door behind him.

**XXX**

Damon woke up just a few hours later, from Katie screaming and crying. He got out of bed and rushed into her room. She was still sleeping, kicking and fighting and gasping for air between the cries.

"Stop! Stop, please!" She screamed and Damon paused. This was the first time he had heard her say actual words in her sleep. He sat down on her bed and gently shook her awake. She opened her eyes looking around her in panic. Damon sat and watched her, waiting for her to come to. When she realized she was in her room, safe in her bed, Katie let out a relieved sigh and leaned back against the pillows.

"I think it's about time you told me what all these dreams are about." Damon said and leaned against the bedpost, lifting Katie and moving her a little further towards the other side so he would have more space.

"No" She shook her head frantically.

"Why not?" Damon tried very hard not to sound irritated.

Katie shrugged and tried to turn away but Damon put his hand on her shoulder, keeping her where she was. He put his other hand on her head and turned it so that she was forced to look at him.

"Katie." Damon said in a serious tone. "These nightmares have gotten worse and worse and barely a night has passed without you having them. I want them to stop, for my own sake too actually since you keep waking the rest of us up."

"I'm sorry." Katie mumbled. "Are you mad at me?"

"It's okay; it's not your fault." Damon sighed. "And stop asking me all the time if I'm mad, I promise you that when I am you'll know. But if the nightmares are getting worse we need to work out why you're having them to make them stop. And I can't do that unless you tell me what they're about."

Katie was silent, looking as if she might want to say something but didn't know where to start. Damon was annoyed by the fact that her telling him was the only way he would find out what her dreams were about. In the beginning he had tried to get inside her head to see what was going on but she was apparently as immune to that as she was to compulsion. She wasn't affected by anything supernatural.

"Ok" Damon tried. "How about I ask you things and you just answer? For instance, when did the dreams start? Did you ever have them before you came here?"

Katie bit her lip.

"No" She admitted.

Damon steeled himself, realizing he might not want to know the answer to his next question.

"Am I ever in your dreams?"

"No" Katie shook her head.

Damon was surprised by the relief he felt. He didn't want Katie to be afraid of him. At least not that afraid.

"What happened on the day you came?" Damon kept going. "Did your mother or Katherine say something or do something else to you than what you already told me?"

The look on Katie's face told him that he had gotten it right this time.

"Katie" He said softly. "Just tell me."

"Katherine said to my mom that someone was coming to find me and that mom needed her to help protect me." Katie let out.

"Well, you should know better than to trust anything Katherine says." Damon snorted.

"I know but…" Katie was fighting the tears now. "It seemed like she really knew stuff. And my mom was really scared too. She wouldn't have been if it was just poppycock, right?"

"'Poppycock'?" Damon repeated, amused. "What did Katherine say more specifically?"

"She told mom that it was only a matter of time before they found me and drained me of blood. And…" She hesitated. "She said that if that didn't happen, my mom would lose control again and kill me herself."

"So is that what your dreams are about?" Damon asked her. "Someone finding you and… draining you of blood?"

Katie nodded.

"What happens in the dreams?" Damon wanted to know.

"There are always people, that look nice in the beginning but then they change and become like mom was on the day when we came here." Katie told him, glancing downwards even if Damon still had her head turned at him. He released his grip, letting her look whichever direction she wanted. "And then" Katie continued in a thicker voice "they bite me and start _drinking _from me and it hurts and I scream… And then mom comes and pushes the scary people away but then she looks at me and she turns scary to and then she starts drinking and I want her to stop but she doesn't! That's when I wake up." Damon could see that she was on the verge of crying.

"Come here" He said, tapping his leg. Katie sat up and crawled up on his lap. Damon gripped her shoulders firmly. "Look at me" he told her. "The dream is not real. That won't happen to you; _I_ won't let it. Besides, it's impossible since your mom's dead. She could never hurt you." He didn't mention that the other part of the dream was fully possible. What hurt Katie the most was clearly that her mother was bad in the dream. "Ok, Katie? That woman in the dream is not your mom."

"Ok." Katie nodded as the tears started spilling from her eyes. Damon pulled her into a hug, holding her tight and stroking her hair as she buried her face into his chest. Eventually she fell asleep and Damon put her back to bed, tucking her in and placing Archibald next to her. He stroked the hair from her eyes and mumbled, almost more to himself than to her:

"I'll keep you safe."

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please keep reviewing, because reading your reviews is amazing! And I promise that there'll be some more action in the next chapter.**

**Xo**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you so much for your always wonderful reviews! Here is the next chapter and things are starting to happen. I promised before the last one that I would explain a little about my "kind of AU". It's basically this: the sacrifice and everything that happened in season 2 happened, apart from Damon being bitten by Tyler and Stefan being reined in by Klaus. Klaus found out the way to make hybrids anyway and now he lives in Mystic Falls to keep close to his human blood bag, Elena. He has a little army of hybrids, like in season 3, and is quite often out of town to recruit new "soldiers" however. Something like that. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**XXX**

The weeks that followed passed without any more nightmares. Katie seemed more and more relaxed with Damon and Stefan and she loved it when Elena, or Caroline for that matter, came over. After Elena learned that Katie liked to draw she brought Jeremy with her at one point and he and Katie spent an entire afternoon drawing up what looked like a graphic novel in the evening. The little girl's nightmares had stopped, at least for now and both Damon and Stefan were glad. Partly because it meant no more waking up from Katie's screams but mostly for her sake because the dreams scared her and wore her out. The vampire brothers, with the help of the few friends that knew about Katie, did their best to keep her occupied but she was a child and would sometimes get restless from just hanging at the house all day. She obviously didn't understand why the adults wouldn't let her out and Damon was dead set on keeping off telling her about all the supernatural stuff for as long as possible. Which was easier said than done, because Katie had started to ask questions about why she wasn't going to school and why she couldn't go outside and play or read in the backyard. About three weeks after she had first arrived at the boarding house, she was drawing in a sketchbook, sprawled out on the floor before the fireplace in the parlor. It was dark outside and she was in her PJs, all showered and ready for bed soon. Damon was on the couch, reading a book with a glass of bourbon in his hand. Katie stopped drawing and stood up on her knees.

"What is it, Katie?" Damon, having heard her movement, didn't even look up from his book.

"Can I go outside tomorrow?" she asked him, starting to gather her drawing things to put away when she got to her room.

"No, there's too much pollen." Damon said, even though it was nearly December and he didn't even know if Katie was allergic. "You'll have a sneeze attack."

"But fresh air is important." Katie persisted, ignoring his pollen comment and crawling up onto the couch and sitting herself down next to Damon. She continued, while Damon looked sideways at her with raised eyebrows: "I have hardly gotten _any _fresh air since I've been living here. And every day I can see a big tree from my window that I really, really want to climb."

"We'll see tomorrow." Damon said, closing his book and putting it on the couch. "If climbing trees keeps you off climbing bookshelves I might consider it."

Katie squirmed where she sat, blushing a little. A few evenings earlier, she had been particularly bored and particularly full of energy. She wanted to go outside and run around, and preferably climb some trees, but hadn't known if she could persuade Damon. And she wanted to do it _right away. _So she had gone into the library, thinking she could at least get to the top of one of those amazingly high bookshelves. She almost made it all the way up before she got to a loose shelf. When she had grabbed at it, it had fallen out of the bookshelf and down onto the floor, some of the old books that had been on it breaking apart when they landed. Thankfully, Katie had managed to hold onto the shelf she'd been holding with her other hand, even if her feet had slipped as well. Damon had rushed in to find her hanging and he had come over to her in silence before telling her to let go and that he would catch her. She had and he had, he had caught her in his arms like she weighed nothing and then he made her tidy up the mess before he dragged her down to the basement, where he locked her inside a cold room for an hour. It had felt much longer though, because he hadn't told her how long she would have to stay in there. When Katie had started to wonder whether she would have to spend the night in the cold, dark cellar she had started to cry and after that it wasn't long before Damon came back and let her out, taking her to bed and even reading to her for a little while before she went to sleep. Katie hadn't been climbing any bookshelves since.

"I didn't mean to make the books fall down." She mumbled. "I said I was sorry."

"I know you didn't mean to." Damon said, closing his book and rising from the couch. "But you did. And it's not just the books; you could have fallen too and broken an arm. I don't even want to think about what kind of a mess that would have been."

He walked over to his daughter, picking her up with one arm and taking her sketch book and box of crayons in his other hand.

"I could fall from a tree too." Katie pointed out as Damon started carrying her upstairs and towards her room.

"Grass is softer than stone floor." Damon remarked and sat Katie down on her bed as he went to put away the drawing things. He put them on their shelf and went back to tuck the girl in. He cocked his head at the pillows for her to lie down and as she did he sat on the edge of the bed, pulling the cover over her and handing Archibald to her.

"G'night Damon." Katie said sleepily.

"Night Katie." Damon rose and walked towards the door. As usual Katie called after him.

"Damon?"

"What?"

"I would really, really like to go outside tomorrow." Katie pleaded, sitting up and looking at him with big blue eyes. "Please?"

"Don't beg." Damon barked at her. "I'll think about it, and I already said we'll see tomorrow." He added in a softer tone. "Now sleep so it'll come faster."

"Ok." Katie sighed a little bit and lay back down.

Damon smirked to himself as he switched her lights off and closed the door. He walked downstairs and poured himself another glass of bourbon. He had just sat down on the couch to continue his reading when Stefan came back home and entered the parlor.

"We have a problem" Was the first thing Stefan said to his brother.

"What?" Damon rose.

"You know that Klaus has been trying to seduce Caroline, sending her gifts, taking her out and so on. And she's been letting him so she could spy on him and learn his patterns."

"Yeah?" Damon had the feeling he wouldn't like what was about to come.

"She was out with him tonight and accidentally said something that made him suspicious about why you haven't been seen much in these past weeks." Stefan spoke quickly to get it all out as fast as he could. "So he compelled her to tell him everything she knew."

"What are you saying?" Damon asked through clenched teeth.

"He knows about Katie and that she could be a threat to him." Stefan said with a painful expression. "And he probably has every hybrid in this town looking for her."

"I'm going to kill that bitch!" Damon hissed and threw his glass into the fire. He walked around the room in circles. "Why wasn't she on vervain or something?"

"Damon, it wasn't Caroline's fault. She only agrees to see Klaus to try to figure out his weaknesses." Stefan reasoned. "And Katie is safe; we renewed Elena's ownership of the house so the protection that ceased when she died is restored. As long as Katie stays in here she's fine."

"She asked me to go outside tomorrow." Damon muttered and threw himself down on the couch. "She wants to climb trees. She's stubborn as hell, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to pull the 'because I said so'"

"Well, maybe you should tell her the truth? About everything, about her mother and Katherine too." Stefan carefully suggested.

"No" Damon said determinedly. "I don't want her to be scared of what I am. She can have a healthy amount of respect for me as an authority figure but I don't want her to tiptoe around us because we're vampires. That would be so annoying."

"But she should be afraid of vampires." Stefan argued. "Don't you think she'll be ok with it if you make her understand that you're just protecting her? I think she'll be more ok with you forbidding her to leave the house if she knows the reason for it."

Damon just scoffed, knowing Stefan was probably right but not wanting to admit it. However, he still thought there was a difference between Katie having to stay in the house because he said so and having to stay in the house because she had to hide from monsters who wanted to murder her. Somehow, he thought that it would be easier for her to cope with him being strict and bullheaded. Also, he didn't want to add onto the pain she had already experienced. But that he would never have admitted to anyone of course.

"I'm going to bed." He said abruptly, leaving the room in haste before Stefan could say anything else.

**XXX**

"Hi Damon!" Katie said as Damon entered the kitchen the following morning. She and Stefan were eating cereal at the kitchen table. It was only seven am but Katie was already dressed in a green t-shirt and patterned hoodie, along with a pair of navy-blue leggings. She looked excited and Stefan cautious.

"Morning weirdo." Damon said as he sat down, ruffling her hair.

"I'm off to school." Stefan rose. "I told Elena I'd meet her early today because I _need to tell her something_" He looked purposefully at Damon before saying good bye to Katie and leaving.

"When can I go outside?" Katie asked Damon, almost jumping in her chair.

"Not today." Damon said curtly, grabbing a bowl and filling it with cereal, even if he felt more like getting a blood bag.

"Why not?" Katie burst out.

"Because I said so." Damon poured milk over his bran flakes without looking at Katie.

"But you said…" Katie started before Damon slammed his fist into the table.

"I _said _we would see today, that I'd think about it" He burrowed his eyes into hers and she backed away in her chair. "And I have. The answer is no and it won't be any different no matter how much you whine or beg, so don't try."

"It's not fair!" Katie cried at him. "Why won't you let me go outside?"

"Katie." Damon growled warningly. "Stop shouting at me right now."

"I hate living here!" Katie screamed. "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!"

Angry tears were spilling from her eyes and she furiously wiped them away as she calmed herself down. Damon looked at her coldly.

"You done?" He asked and she looked back at him, nodding eventually. "Good." Damon rose from the chair, holding his hand out for Katie to take. She didn't dare but taking it and he led her upstairs into her room, himself staying in the doorway as he pushed her inside.

"You stay in here until I say otherwise." He told her. "Maybe being confined to just one room will make you appreciate the fact that you have had a very big house to play around in. It could have been worse." Damon closed the door went to get the skeleton key that was hidden in a special drawer. Then he locked the door so Katie wouldn't get out and went back downstairs.

**XXX**

Katie flinched as she heard the door lock. She didn't like being locked in. Once at school, about a year before, she had been to the bathroom during recess when the lock broke and she couldn't unlock the door to get out. She had been in there for an hour before anybody noticed she was missing and heard her screaming as they looked. And then she had to stay for another hour before they got a locksmith (the school didn't want to just break the lock because that would lose them too much money). Katie hated the feeling of being locked up and unable to go anywhere. That was why she was so angry at Damon for not letting her outside when he had _almost _said she could. Katie walked over to the window and sighed as she looked out. It was a really beautiful day, sunny and nice even though it was already December and probably cold. Katie wanted to get out so badly. She looked out on the tree that was just outside her window, wishing she could be in it… An idea suddenly came to her. There was a big branch that looked to be within jumping distance from her window. Katie went over to her door, listening through it. Damon didn't appear to be anywhere near. She grabbed her jean jacket from her closet and walked over to the window, silently opening it and climbing up on the windowpane. She hesitated for a moment. She was starting to like her dad; wouldn't he be really mad and maybe even sad if she didn't do as he'd said? But he was being so unfair, she thought, and she would just go outside for a little while and then she would climb back inside. Katie threw herself from the window and got hold of the branch, climbing up on it with ease. She climbed further into the tree and all the way down, softly landing on the ground. She smiled happily to herself. Careful to stay out of sight from any of the windows the made it to front and stepped out from the Salvatore garden. She crept on the ground so Damon wouldn't have a chance of seeing her and once she was out of sight from the house she stood up and looked around, taking a deep breath of the crisp morning air. She heard a little noise and quickly turned. A huge dog stood a few yards away from her, wagging its tail.

"Hi" Katie said to it and giggled as the animal came towards her and licked her hand. She patted the dog on his head.

The dog let out a little bark and turned around, still wagging its tail and seemingly wanting her to follow. Katie looked back, hesitantly. She should probably go back to the house before Damon noticed she was missing from her room.

"Sorry doggy." She said to the dog. "I can't come with you today."

Then the dog did something amazing. He stood on his back legs and did a sort of a back flip, barking happily. Katie laughed. She was getting very curious about what the dog wanted to show her.

"Ok…" She said. "I'll come a little bit."

She started walking and the dog walked before her, showing her the way. He led her into the forest, until they came to a space was a hole in the ground and a couple of yards beside it some stone steps leading into the ground. The dog ran down. Katie hesitated again, not sure if she wanted to follow him anymore. But then she heard the dog wail down there, a sad long wail. Katie was worried. Maybe the dog had hurt himself? She sighed a little and then ran down the steps.

"Doggy?" She called uncertainly, not hearing his wails anymore. She was in a round space, and far above she could see an opening which must be the hole she had seen. There was an opening leading into the dark. Katie didn't really want to go in there but she felt she had to make sure the dog was ok. She went in there and tried her best to get her eyes used to the dark. She took a few steps inwards and then all of a sudden something appeared before her. Katie started to scream but a hand was placed over her mouth and then she felt a little sting in her neck before everything was completely black.

**XXX**

Sometime in the afternoon, Damon was starting to feel guilty towards Katie. Sure, she shouldn't have shouted at him but he definitely got why she had. Of course she was disappointed that she couldn't go outside. And he was also feeling guilty since he had figured out the other day that she didn't like being locked in. The memory of how scared she had seemed when he'd come to get her from the cellar was the reason for why he had decided to just keep her in her room today and not in the basement. Damon walked upstairs, with his mind set on asking Katie if she wanted to order some take-out and watch a movie. However, when he opened his door he was shocked to see that the window was wide open and Katie wasn't in there.

"Oh no, she didn't" He muttered and walked over to the window, looking out and realizing it would have been fully possible for her to jump into the tree and climb down. "Damn it!" He growled and quickly got his phone out as he sped downstairs.

"Stefan" He said as soon as his brother picked up. "Get Elena, Jeremy, Caroline and Alaric as quick as you can. Katie has run away."

"Oh my god." Stefan sounded shocked. "Didn't you tell her why she couldn't go out?"

"No" Damon walked out and got in his car. "I just said she couldn't and she threw a little tantrum so I locked her in her room. She climbed down the tree outside her window."

"Oh god." Stefan said again. "I'll get everyone, we'll find her."

"I know we will." Damon said as he hit the road. "I just hope we'll find her alive."

**XXX**

**Hope you liked it! Please review and let me know what you're thinking. xo**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you thank you thank you for your reviews! I am so very happy that you're so engaged in this little story and I'm loving to read your opinions.**

**Priya: I looove your enthusiasm, thank you so much ;)**

**ShootingStar92: Thank you for your awesome feedback! I think you're right; making this story just about Damon and Elena would destroy it and that is not my purpose. I intend to keep the focus on Daddy Damon, Uncle Stefan and mini Damon ;) I put Elena in as the second character because I thought that if there would be any pairing between characters, it would be those two. I've taken her away now though, hehe. I'm also very happy that you like the characterization, I too prefer the crazy impulsive cave man Damon because I think it makes it all the better when he's good. We'll be seeing a lot of cave man Damon in this chapter…**

**And THANK YOU everybody else, keep reading and reviewing and if you have any special wishes for how you want the story to go: don't hesitate to tell me and I might just steal your ideas ;)**

**WARNING: ****This chapter involves a violent and abusive Damon; I'll evolve more on my reasons for writing him like that further down so I won't spoil too much. Hopefully you won't take offence and keep reading! Thank you all.**

**XXX**

When Katie woke up she was still in the dark underground place but even further in. It was dark around her and she rubbed her eyes trying to get used to it. She felt as if she had been sleeping for an eternity.

"Finally." A voice said. "Maybe I shouldn't have given you an adult's dose, I've been bored out of my skull watching you sleep all day."

A man walked over to her with a flashlight and roughly grabbed her chin, tilting her face towards him. The man was young, Katie saw, like Stefan. He had black hair and dark eyes and lots of muscles on his arms.

"Wow, you really do look like Damon." He said, staring at her in wonder before letting go of her and standing up straight. "Luckily for you, Klaus hasn't decided what to do with you just yet. He's been out of town looking for new recruits but he's on his way back to have a look at you. If you're _really _lucky he might decide that you don't have to die, that maybe there are other options."

Katie swallowed. Who was Klaus? She was trembling from fear and also cold. The man took up a phone.

"Nothing." He looked over at Katie. "I'm sorta wondering what kind of effect your blood would have on someone like me. It should make me extra strong, right? Given you're more than human."

"I don't understand." Katie whispered, almost to herself. She had no idea what the guy was saying. What did it all mean? Why was he talking about her blood? She remembered her nightmares and her stomach turned. The look her captor was giving her was penetrating.

**XXX**

Damon didn't know how he came to think of it but after an exhausting day of looking everywhere and calling on everyone; he came to think about the tomb. He hadn't looked there but had the impression he had looked everywhere else so he parked his car as far into the forest as possible and ran the rest of the way. He focused his ears as he was getting closer and at the sound of Katie screaming he sped up even more.

**XXX**

"I think I'll have to try some." The man said, smirking in a very creepy way. "Losing a few mouthfuls won't kill you." He came towards Katie and she backed away until she hit the wall. She was trapped. The scary man leaned closer to her face and Katie lost her breath as his features changed, veins started showing under his now red eyes and large fangs came out of his mouth. _Just like her mother. _Katie closed her eyes and screamed. Then all of a sudden, she heard a swoosh and then a crash and she no longer felt the man's presence before her. She opened her eyes a little to see Damon fighting the man who had kept her. Her dad had his hand on the scary man's throat.

"Katie!" Damon shouted. "Close your eyes!"

Katie did as she was told and covered her eyes with her hands. She heard a terrible cracking sound and then Damon's voice again:

"Keep em' closed."

Katie felt Damon's hands lifting her up and she kept her hands over her eyes as she was being carried. After a little while she could feel the wind and then she was suddenly put down on her own two feet.

"Now you can look."

Katie slowly let her hands down and somewhat reluctantly opened her eyes. The bad man was nowhere to be seen, they were outside in the forest again by the steps. Damon towered over Katie. She trembled with fear, partly because she was still shaken by what had just happened and partly because Damon was looking so angry. In the time that Katie had spent at his house, she had never seen him this furious.

"Are you hurt?" He asked her through clenched teeth.

She couldn't bring herself to say anything and just shook her head. Damon scrutinized her with cold eyes, as if to make sure she wasn't lying about not being hurt.

"We're leaving." He then said curtly. He yanked Katie up by her arm and roughly threw her over his shoulder. It hurt a little but Katie didn't dare say anything. He carried her through the forest until they reached his car. Damon said nothing as he placed her in the backseat, got in the driver's seat and started the engine. He was dead silent on the whole way back to the boarding house and Katie started getting more nervous by the second. When Damon pulled over at the house he turned to look at her with cold fury in his eyes.

"Didn't I make myself clear the last time you left the house on your own without telling anyone?" He barked at her.

"Yes." Katie said silently.

"What did I say?"

"You said I couldn't." Katie admitted, squirming under his gaze but unable to refrain from asking him: "Damon… Who was that man?"

"You're not exactly in a position to be asking questions, missy." Damon hissed at her and got out of the car. Before Katie knew it he opened the door on her side.

"Get out." He told her.

She fumbled with her seatbelt and Damon got impatient and unbuckled it himself, yanking Katie out by her arm. He slammed the car door shut and started dragging Katie towards the house. She did her best to keep up but still had a hard time trying not to fall over. Well inside, Damon let go of her arm and looked sternly at her.

"I told you something else that time, didn't I?" He asked rhetorically. "I said that if you left the house without permission again there would be consequences."

Katie swallowed.

"I have to call everyone to let them know you're ok and to stop looking for you." Damon continued. "And while I do that I want you go upstairs into your room, get ready for bed and wait for me. I'll be up in ten minutes and you'd better be showered and in your PJs by then."

"What are you gonna do?" Katie asked worriedly.

"Now!" Damon snapped. Katie quickly ran upstairs and as Damon heard her door shut he took out his phone. He texted around and simply said that Katie was home safe before he finished by calling Stefan.

"I got your message." Stefan said as soon as he picked up. "Is she ok, what happened?"

"She's ok." Damon told him. "More so now than when I'll be done with her."

"What are you gonna do?" Stefan asked cautiously and Damon vaguely noticed that he sounded quite similar to what Katie had sounded like a few minutes before.

"Don't worry about that, little brother." Damon said. "We have worse things to be concerned about, thanks to Blondie. Katie's existence and what she is now apparently common knowledge among hybrids and I haven't even told you the best parts of it yet. I'll save it for when you get home, but we have some serious stuff to discuss, little bro. And we can't keep Katie in the dark anymore either I suppose."

"I told you so." Stefan sighed. "When are you going to tell her?"

"Maybe tonight, I haven't decided yet." Damon let out a sigh as well. "I'll see how much she's up for when I'm done making her wish she'd never woken up this morning."

"Damon…" Stefan started but his brother cut him off:

"She shouldn't have snuck out." His voice was firm and monotone, indicating that nothing would change his mind about how wrong Katie had been to disobey him.

"She shouldn't have." Stefan admitted after a while. "But go easy on her, will you? I'll be home soon; I'll swing by Elena's first."

"Take your time." Damon hung up the phone, ignoring to comment on Stefan's "go easy"-plea. He felt the anger towards Katie rush over him again as he went upstairs to deal with her disobedience. His phone told him that only nine minutes had passed but she really ought to be ready for him by now if she knew what was best for her.

He found her in her room, ready in her PJs and sitting on the bed clutching her knees. Good girl, Damon thought. She jumped off the bed and stood up the instant he came in, cautiously looking up at him. Damon sat on the edge of the bed and grabbed hold of her shoulders to make her stand before him.

"First things first." Damon started and nearly spit the words out. "Why did you go outside when I very explicitly told you that you couldn't and even locked you in your room?"

Katie looked at her feet. She didn't want to answer Damon's questions when he didn't answer hers. She didn't dare say that however.

"Katie" Damon growled warningly and shook her. "Answer me _right now_."

"I only wanted to go outside for a little while and then I saw a dog and he was funny and he wanted me to go with him." Katie blurted out. "I didn't mean to go far; I just wanted to see what the dog was going to do. And I hate being locked in." She added. "I don't understand why I can never go anywhere, not even to school or just out in the garden. It's not fair!" As she spoke, she had gotten a defiant spark in her eyes.

"There's a reason for why it has to be this way, Katie." Damon sighed. "You have to trust me on that."

"But _why?" _ Katie was screaming now. "Why won't you tell me?"

"You'll know soon enough." Damon narrowed his eyes. "Right now you're going to stop shouting at me or you'll only make things worse."

Katie was silent, but still glared at him.

"You've broken some very important rules, Katie, by going outside when I had forbidden you to." Damon told her. "You did a really stupid thing, putting yourself in danger. I'll have to punish you for that and then if you know what's good for you you'll never do anything like it again. Then at least there'll have been a lesson learned from this horribly stupid day."

Damon's eyes were cold as he let go of one of her shoulders. Without thinking, Katie acted on impulse, shook off his other hand and made a run for the door. Damon was by her in an instant, taking her by the arm but catching him by surprise Katie managed to wriggle out of his grip.

"You're strong for a little thing." Damon said, slightly impressed but of course she was no match for him in neither speed nor strength. He caught up with her before she made it out the door and carried her over to the bed. He held her firmly as he sat down and placed her stomach down over his lap.

"Let me go!" Katie cried and tried to get up but Damon held her down, catching her fighting hands and pinning them to the small of her back.

"Nice try." Damon snorted. "But you just made it worse on yourself."

Damon pulled down her pajama bottoms and panties to the top of her thighs and instantly brought his hand down on her bared little bottom. Katie gasped at the shock of the first hard swat and as Damon kept raining down smacks and it wasn't long before the little girl was letting out sobs and whimpers at each one. Damon paused after a little while.

"That" he said "Was for trying to get away from your punishment. This" he said as he landed an even harder swat than the previous ones "will be for leaving the house without permission and breaking my rules." He spanked her again, longer and harder than before. Katie cried out in pain after each smack and her bottom was turning a darker and darker shade of red.

"Stop!" She cried out after a particularly hard strike. "Stop, please!"

Realizing that was the same way, the exact same words she cried in her nightmare a little more than a week ago, Damon stopped abruptly. Katie lay limp on over his lap, too scared to move, and cried; his jean clad leg was wet where her face was pressed against it. Damon carefully pulled her panties and pajama bottoms up over her already bruising behind. He cursed silently for having lost control over his temper; he had hit her much too hard. Then again, he had most likely gotten his point across and he doubted that Katie would leave the house without permission again. At least not for a while. He turned her over and lifted her up into sitting position. She whimpered as he sat her down on the bed next to him, even though it was soft. Damon gazed at her but she refused to meet his eyes, wiping her own with the back of her hand. In vain, because the tears kept flowing from her eyes as she cried silently. Her shoulders were shaking and Damon was starting to feel pretty bad. He put his hand on her little back and stroked it gently. He felt her stiffen at the touch.

"Katie." He said to her. "It's over now. You don't have to be afraid of me."

At that she let out a sob, confirming to him that she was indeed very afraid of him right now. Perhaps she was right to be, Damon thought to himself. If she hadn't cried for him to stop he might have gone on even longer, hurting her far worse than he already had.

"Do you understand why I did what I did?" Damon sighed, not quite sure of how to play out this "and why were you punished?" part. In his days children had been whipped whenever they misbehaved but they always had to figure out themselves what the hell they did wrong this time.

"Because I disobeyed and now you hate me." Katie answered his question sniveling.

"No!" Damon frowned. "When are you gonna get into that little head of yours that I _love _you, which last time I checked is the absolute opposite of hating you?"

Katie looked up at him, surprise in her eyes. He hadn't told her he loved her before. She tried to stop herself from crying but her bottom still hurt a lot so it was hard not to cry from the pain. Damon took her head in his hands, wiping tears away with his thumb.

"I reason I spanked you" he started "Was to make sure you'd know that breaking my rules will get you hurt one way or the other and I promise you, this kind of hurt is the gentle way. Can you imagine what would have happened if I hadn't found you when I did?"

Katie saw the scary man before her eyes and shivered. Damon kept holding her.

"And I'm not going to lie to you, Katie." Damon continued. "This is how it's gonna be if you don't listen to me, I'll discipline you one way or the other until you get that it's not ok to put yourself in that kind of danger. Do you understand now?"

Katie nodded, letting out a last little sob and looking so vulnerable that Damon simply had to pull her towards him in a hug. She buried her face in his chest and let the tears come.

"I'm sorry for running away." She cried into his shirt.

"I know." Damon said. "I get it. And I'm sorry too; I was… a bit hard on you."

He knew now that he had to tell her everything; that she would understand and maybe even feel better knowing what was going on. But not tonight, she wouldn't be able to handle it tonight. He decided he would let her sleep and let her in on it all tomorrow. He stroked the hair from her face and looked into her eyes.

"Time for bed, little one." He said and made her lie down. She immediately rolled over on her stomach.

Without her getting the time to protest or stop him, Damon quickly lifted her pajama bottoms and her panties to look at the damage. Her backside was still very deep red and bruising. He sighed.

"Let me know if you're still hurting tomorrow, ok?" He told her, figuring if it was bad he might as well slip her some of his blood if it was too agonizing for her. Or for him, to see her in pain.

Katie nodded, reaching out for her teddy bear. Damon handed it to her and she clutched it.

"Do you want me to stay for a while?" He asked her.

"You don't have to." Katie mumbled. "I'll go to sleep on my own."

Damon surprised by how hurt that made him feel; it was the first time she hadn't wanted him to stay when he offered. He didn't object however, simply pulled the cover over her before he stroked her tear-stained cheek and rose to get out of the room.

"Damon?" Katie said after him in a tiny little voice.

"What?" He turned sideways to look at her. God, she looked small tonight.

"I don't really know that much about love and stuff but I think I love you too." Katie said solemnly.

Damon cracked a little smile, walked back to the bed, leaned over and kissed his daughter's head.

"I'm glad." He mumbled. "Now sleep tight and we'll talk more tomorrow."

"Ok." Katie said tiredly and closed her eyes. "Good night Damon."

"Good night, sweetheart" Damon backed away until he was out the door. He reached in to switch the lights off and then walked downstairs.

**XXX**

"What did you do?" Stefan demanded as soon as Damon entered the parlor.

"Relax little bro." Damon walked over to the table and poured himself a drink of bourbon. "Nothing that hasn't been done to naughty children before."

He smirked at Stefan, who stared at him in disbelief.

"You spanked her?" He asked. "Are you insane?"

"Last I checked." Damon stretched out on the couch and Stefan slowly sunk down into an armchair. "Seriously though, I'm an old-fashioned guy. Whatever it is they do today it doesn't work; the kids inhabiting this town are punks. Besides, for Katie it was really the only punishment that made sense."

"How so?" Stefan was still skeptical.

"Because." Damon said in a slightly annoyed tone. "I couldn't very well ground her, since she's not allowed to go out anyway. Confining her to her room wouldn't make sense because that's already where she spends most of her time. And I can't take away her electronics because she barely has any and what she does have she's not even interested in. And…" He added with a sigh. "I didn't want to take away her books or colors. It's boring enough for her to be locked up in the house all the time. Spanking her is quick and when it's over, it's over. Clean slate, everything forgiven and all that. Not to mention it gets the message through very efficiently."

Stefan wasn't convinced but he could admit that what Damon had just said wasn't illogical. There was only one more thing Stefan needed to know.

"How hard did you spank her?" He asked carefully.

"Hard enough to get my point across." Damon snorted.

Stefan just raised his eyebrows and gazed upon his brother.

"Fine!" Damon let out in a frustrated tone and sat up straight. "I might have been a little harsh. Being scared of losing her forever got the best of me."

"You need to get control over yourself if this is how you're going to deal with her misbehaving in the future." Stefan told him. "That, or let me do the disciplining."

"Lay a finger on her and I'll drive a stake through your heart." Damon hissed at him through clenched teeth.

"Fine. Then you need to know when you're going too far."

"I will." Damon assured him.

"Good."

They sat in silence, neither of them wanting to address the subject that they both knew they had to discuss. Eventually Damon said:

"The hybrid I killed…"

"Was Tyler Lockwood." Stefan sighed.

"How did you know?" Damon frowned at his brother.

"I found him." Stefan explained. "I went to the tomb thinking that it would be better to thoroughly get rid of the body. Caroline won't be happy."

"You don't seem as morally questioning as I thought you'd be though." Damon raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I won't question why you killed Tyler" Stefan shrugged. "He lost all sympathy the instant he decided it was ok to kidnap my niece for Klaus, sire bond or no sire bond."

"Here's to no remorse" Damon raised his glass at Stefan, who looked back at him gravely.

"You realize that there's no going back now, don't you?" He said. "We're at war. We need to get rid of the hybrids before they get rid of us."

"I'm in." Damon said without hesitation, grinding his teeth at the thought of what the stupid Tyler Lockwood had try to do to his little girl.

"No" Stefan said firmly.

"No?" Damon hissed, anger rushing through him.

"If it comes to a point where you have to bargain or make deals with Klaus you will have far better chances if you haven't been involved in trying to destroy him and his hybrid minions."

Damon let out a frustrated sigh.

"I'm already involved, I killed one of them."

"Still" Stefan didn't budge. "You need to keep Katie safe and yourself out of danger. She doesn't need to lose you too."

Damon frowned, thinking about what Stefan had said.

"Fine." He sighed eventually. "I will keep out of it. For now."

"Good." Stefan rose. "I'm going to bed."

"Nighty night, little bro." Damon drained his glass and sat still for a long time, staring into the fire until it burned out. Then he got rid of his glass and went upstairs to go to bed.

**XXX**

Damon woke up from soft whimpering and he didn't even have time to get annoyed before he found himself rushing into Katie's room. She was still lying stomach down and she was sobbing into the pillow. Damon sat down on the bed and placed a hand on her shoulder blade. She turned her tearstained face towards him.

"I'm sorry." She sniveled. "I tried to be quiet; I really didn't mean to wake you up."

"I know." Damon said reassuringly, stroking her back. "You were quiet, I just happen to have excellent hearing. Wanna tell me what's wrong?"

Katie shook her head. Damon stroked her hair back from her face.

"Tell me, Katie." He said softly. "I won't be mad."

Katie hesitated before whimpering, barely audible:

"It hurts…"

"Oh." Damon understood instantly what she meant. "I'll have a look" he sighed, not feeling up for seeing how badly he'd hurt her.

"No!" Katie wailed and Damon let go of the cover that he had begun to lift off her. He leaned down so his face was in level with hers.

"I get that you don't want me too, I really do." He told her, wiping her tears with his thumb. "But I promise that I'm not going to hurt you and that it'll only take a second. Ok?"

"But why?" Katie sobbed.

"Just to see how bad it is so I know how I can help you."

Katie let out a few more sobs but then nodded ok. Damon kissed her forehead and lifted the cover off her. He made due on his promise, lifting her pajama bottoms and panties and inspecting the damage only took a second. He didn't need more than that to see that it was bad; he had beaten her bottom black and blue. No wonder it hurt so much that she woke up from the pain. He felt the bad conscience washing over him like a tsunami. He put her pants back in place, making her sob as the fabric touched her cheeks, and pulled the cover back over her.

"Ok" Damon said, stroking her hair again. "I'll go get you something to drink and if you want I can give you a sleeping pill to help you rest. How's that?"

"Thank you." Katie smiled weakly.

"Any time, sweetie." Damon got off the bed and hurried to the medicine cabinet they had for the looks of things and got out the sleeping pills. He went to the kitchen and poured some strawberry smoothie into a glass. They had started buying it for appearances if Katie should ever ask what they were drinking all the time, or want some of what Damon and Stefan had. Damon bit his wrist and dripped some blood into the glass, shaking it slightly to make it blend. He brought the smoothie and the sleeping pills back to Katie along with a glass of water.

"Ok, Katie." He said. "Have some of this"

He handed her the strawberry smoothie that was tipped with his blood. Katie gratefully took the glass and sipped on its content. Her face turned green within seconds.

"Not on the sheets!" Damon said quickly when he realized that her body was repelling his blood. "Back in the glass."

Katie spit up what she had just swallowed back into the glass and Damon took it from her, placing it on the nightstand.

"Sorry." Katie said tiredly.

"It's ok." Damon reassured her. "It seems strawberry just isn't you're flavor. Here, you'll swallow the pill with water instead."

He helped her swallow half of a sleeping pill with some water, which obviously went much better.

"There." He said, putting this glass too on her nightstand. "You should be asleep within twenty minutes."

Katie nodded, hugging the pillow with one arm and holding onto Archibald with the other. Damon stretched out beside her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Katie." He said as her breathing finally started to even. He almost choked on her name. "I'm so sorry for hurting you like this."

"I forgive you." Katie mumbled sleepily but sincerely and her eyes fell closed. "I'm going to sleep now."

"Do that." Damon whispered as her breathing deepened and she drifted off to sleep. He didn't want to leave her on her own and he realized that his bed was much softer than hers. If she was in his bed and turned over in her sleep she was less likely to wake up from pain than if she remained in her own. He got off the bed and very carefully picked her up, placing her over his shoulder so he could hold her around her thighs and not to touch at her bottom. He brought Archibald. He got her into his bedroom and put her down on her stomach, gently brushing that crazy mass of hair away from her face. He lay down next to her, putting Archibald under her arm and pulling the cover over the three of them. In her sleep, Katie reached out and Damon took her hand in his, kissing it softly before turning off the lights and going to sleep.

**XXX**

**Ok, so that was that! I hope that you see the reasons for why I put the spanking scene in there. T****o me it makes sense; Damon was a child during a time when corporal punishment was the way to go and add on his impulsive personality and short temper. I've put the warning in my summary as well and hopefully this chapter hasn't lost me any readers! Please review to let me know you're still there :)**

**And also, I'm sorry for those who like Tyler that I killed him... **

**Next chapter: Damon will finally tell Katie about the vampirism... **


	12. Chapter 12

**Ok, I can't keep from updating any longer! I don't want to leave Katie in pain, haha.**

**Marina164509: After the rain comes sunshine ;)**

**LiveBreatheVampires: Actually, he didn't really underestimate his strength in my opinion; I think he just lost his temper which is probably even worse. And I'll make him feel all the more guilty about that. And about the fine line between abuse and discipline: I've grown up in a country where any kind of corporal punishment is legally and socially considered to be abuse since the seventies. So for me it's very hard to determine what might be offensive, which was why I was worried. But I'm happy you approve! Thank you for everything.**

**Jacks-peapod: I also think Damon learned an important lesson! And he is definitely realizing more and more that he has a soft spot for Katie and hates to see her in pain. Thanks for your review!**

**HiMokusei: Actually, Katie saw Damon's vampire face in the first draft of the last chapter so it's funny that you should mention it! I edited it out because I think she would have probably died in fear. She'll most likely be seeing it soon enough though **

**Thanks also to 1991baby and Priya, you guys rock! Enjoy the next chapter!**

**XXX**

Katie was still sleeping when Damon woke up the next morning. She was still on her stomach and still holding his hand. She had probably never slept through the night in one position before. Damon loosened his hand from her grip and slipped out of the bed, pulling on a pair of jeans and some socks and shoes before leaving the room. He decided he would make Katie some breakfast and bring it to her in bed to tell her everything.

"Hey." Stefan walked into the kitchen as Damon was stirring something into a glass of orange juice. "What's that?"

"Vervain." Damon replied. "Precaution. Hybrids and vampires will still be able to kill her but they damn well won't benefit from drinking her blood. Not that it'll be too much of a problem since she's never getting out of the house again."

"Good thinking." Stefan said and sat down at the table. "About the vervain I mean. What was going on last night?"

"I'm assuming since you ask, you probably heard." Damon said through clenched teeth and took the eggs off the stove.

"I didn't hear what you were saying, only that Katie was crying." Stefan protested. "Was she in pain? Did you hurt her?"

"Yes and yes." Damon replied. "Happy? I lost control and I hit her too hard and now her backside's suffering the consequences." Frustrated, he slammed the frying pan into the sink after having put to eggs on a plate with toast and some sliced fruit.

"Of course I'm not happy to hear that, Damon." Stefan said calmly. "Are you gonna feed her your blood?"

"Already tried." Damon said, putting the plate and the cup of milk on the tray as well. "Didn't work, she threw it back up. I'm not too surprised, none of the other vampire tricks have worked on her."

"Try human blood." Stefan suggested and Damon's eyes widened in surprise. Partly because it seemed weird that Stefan would make such a suggestion and partly because he hadn't thought of it himself.

"That could work." He said, frowning. Before he knew it, Stefan disappeared in a blur and within seconds he was back, handing Damon a blood bag.

Damon poured some of it into a glass, not wanting to freak Katie out at the sight of a blood bag, and finished the rest of it himself. He lifted the tray and went back upstairs and into his bedroom. Katie opened her eyes as he came in.

"Hey." Damon said, placing the tray on the bed next to her, but put the glass of blood on nightstand. "Do you want to sit up?" At her hesitant look he added: "This bed is really soft. Promise." At that Katie nodded. Damon helped her sit up slowly and she let out a little sigh of relief.

"It doesn't hurt that much." She said.

"Good." Damon said, handing her the glass of juice to see how she handled vervain. He watched her carefully as she sipped on it, seemingly without problems. His plan would work. Damon sat with her as she finished her breakfast, apparently hungry since she hadn't had much to eat the day before. When she was done Damon put the silver tray away on the floor and sat up next to Katie.

"There are some things we need to talk about." He said in a serious tone. "Do you think you're up for it?"

"Yeah." Katie said without hesitation but with a cautious glint in her eyes.

"Ok…" Damon sighed, suddenly unsure where to start. "Why don't you tell me everything that happened yesterday after you climbed out the window?"

Katie looked up at him.

"I won't get mad." Damon assured her quickly. "Just tell me. You saw a dog, right? What did it do?"

"It wagged its tail and wanted me to come with… Like he wanted to show me something." Katie started and frowned as she tried to remember. "But I didn't want to at first because I knew I should go back. So I said no and then he did a backflip and kept wanting me to come…" She looked at Damon with a pleading look in her eyes. "I really didn't mean to go far, he was just so funny and I wanted to see what he would do."

"It's ok." Damon soothingly stroked her hair. "What then?"

"I went with him into the forest… Further and further and then we came to this place and the dog went into the ground, on the staircase…"

It was lucky Damon knew the place of the tomb, or what she was saying wouldn't have made any sense. He looked encouragingly at her to keep going.

"And I didn't want to go down there but I heard the dog wail and I thought…" Katie hesitated. "Maybe he was hurt or something and I had to help. So I went down and then it was dark and I didn't see the dog and then the man came and he stung me with in my neck and then I fell asleep."

Damon cursed silently. The bastard had drugged her. However, if she had been out for a few hours then she wouldn't have been scared during that time. Maybe it had been a good thing. Katie kept going, squirming uncomfortably where she sat.

"And then I woke up and the man was there…" She mumbled. "He said so many weird things, he talked about someone called Klaus and that I would die and then" she let out a little sob. "He started talking about my blood and he came closer and closer and his eyes were red and he looked like a monster and it was just like in my nightmares." Tears were flowing from her eyes now. Damon put his arms around her and held her close, stroking her hair as she cried. Eventually the little girl calmed down, leaned back from Damon and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

"But then you came." She sniveled with a little sigh.

"Yeah, I did." Damon said. And then I beat you black and blue, he added in his thoughts with a little pang of guilt. He hadn't changed his mind about Katie's need for punishment after running off without permission but given what she'd been through he could definitely have shown a little more tact.

"Thank you for saving me, Damon." Katie's words came out as a sigh, since she was so exhausted from crying.

"Anytime, sweetheart." Damon patted her head. "Though preferably not anytime soon."

Now it was his turn to sigh.

"Katie, there are some things I have to tell you." He started. "They're not pleasant things but I want you to try your hardest not to be afraid. You're safe now, and you're safe here. Ok?"

"Ok." Katie nodded, looking slightly confused.

"The man who took you was not a regular man." Damon explained. "He was a hybrid, a crossbreed, between a vampire and a werewolf. Do you know what vampires and werewolves are?"

"I've read about them." Katie said with a frown. "Vampires drink peoples' blood and werewolves are people that turn into wolves when it's full moon."

"You know your stuff." Damon said, impressed. "A hybrid drinks blood and can turn into a wolf whenever he or she pleases. I think the dog you saw was a wolf and not a dog; it was the hybrid who took you."

"Oh." Katie looked down on her lap, reflecting. "He was pretty big for a dog."

"He tricked you into going with him."

"Why did he want my blood?" Katie looked back up at Damon. "And what did the Klaus man want with me?"

Damon braced himself for what he was about to say.

"Because you're a hybrid too." He told her. "A different kind of hybrid, a cross between a vampire and a human."

"What?" Katie let out and then looked as if she realized something. "Mom was a vampire?"

"Not at first." Damon explained. "Not until a few weeks before she brought you here. Remember you said she'd been weird and not herself?"

"Yeah." Katie said. "But then how am I a… a hybrid?" She tasted the new word.

"Because I'm a vampire."

Katie's eyes widened as she looked up at him.

"I understand that this is hard to believe." Damon said but Katie shook her head.

"Not really." She shrugged. "It makes sense."

Damon let out a chuckle and smirked at her with a raised eyebrow:

"You think?" He said. "How so?"

"Because now I understand why you're so scary sometimes."

Damon's smirk faded and he leaned down to kiss Katie's head.

"I know I can be scary, in fact I even take pride in it." He started. "But I want you to know that I would never, ever be a danger to you Katie. And neither will Stefan."

"Is he a vampire too?" Katie asked.

"Yup."

"What about Elena?"

"No" Damon shook his head. "She's human. Caroline is a vampire though." He raised an eyebrow at her. "I must say I'm surprised that you believed all this so fast. I took you for a non-believer; I expected you would want proof of this and that and ask ten million annoying questions."

"I know vampires are real." Katie sneered defensively. "I just haven't met any before so I couldn't know what they were like." She added matter-of-factly.

"You keep surprising me, you little weirdo." Damon said, ruffling her hair.

"But Damon…" Katie bit her lip.

"M-hm?"

"I still don't get why the Klaus man would want me to die?"

"Yeah, I was getting to that." Damon sighed. "He wanted your blood because you're special. Being half human and half vampire, you can do some vampire things and some human things. You're dangerous to hybrids because you can kill them with more ease than regular vamps or humans. And Klaus is a really dangerous hybrid; almost no one can kill him. But you can."

"How?" Katie said. "I'm really little."

"I'm guessing when you grow up you'll be a lot stronger." Damon shrugged. "I'm not sure how this whole thing works; your kind is very rare. Normally, vampires aren't able to have children. Your mother got pregnant with you because a witch did some spell."

"Do you know witches too?" Katie was beginning to look almost excited.

"I know one far too well." Damon snorted. "Remember Bonnie?"

"Oh." Kate let out in a disappointed tone. She hadn't particularly taken to Bonnie when she had come with Elena one day. Damon had been very proud of his little girl.

"There's more." Damon turned serious. "I know you think I have been unfair when I say you can't leave the house or even just go out in the garden. But like I told you before I have my reasons."

Katie said nothing, just looked at him and waited for him to continue.

"Well, because you're half human and half vampire, drinking your blood would make vampires able to do things they can't normally do." Damon explained. "Regular vampires can't walk in the sun and they have to be invited into a house before they can enter. And they are sensitive to some things, like wood and this herb called vervain. Drinking your blood would mean that all that would go away."

"How can you walk in the sun?" Katie frowned at Damon. He showed her his ring.

"This was made special by a witch." He told her. "As long as I wear it the sun can't harm me."

"Then don't take it off." Katie said, making him chuckle.

"I don't." He smirked before once again turning serious. "But did you understand what I said, Katie? About why the vampires want your blood?"

"Yeah." Katie nodded. "But I'll be ok as long as I'm in the house and that's why I can't go outside." She said the last bit with a sigh.

"Good girl." Damon smiled at her. "Got it in one."

"Will I have to stay here _forever?" _Katie asked in a worried voice.

"Just until things calm down and the town isn't crawling with hybrids anymore."

He didn't mention that it might be a while before they went anywhere. He was beginning to think that perhaps the safest option would be for him to take Katie somewhere else, just move far away and leave it all behind. However, he might as well wait until whatever Stefan was up to worked or didn't work. Katie seemed temporarily satisfied by his answer and she looked down on her teddy, clutching him to her chest.

"Are you ok?" Damon asked with a frown on his forehead, unsure of whether he should be comforting her somehow. "I get that it's a lot to take in."

"I'm ok." Katie decided after a moment. "But Damon?"

"What?" He looked down at her.

"How did my mom become a vampire?"

"She found another vampire who could turn her into one." Damon answered floatingly.

Katie played with Archibald's ear.

"How do you do that?" She asked, barely audible but Damon heard and hesitated a little before answering.

"You have to drink vampire blood and die with it in your system." He quickly explained. "And then to complete the change you have to drink human blood."

"You have to _die?" _Katie's eyes widened. The dying part seemed to upset her more than the blood parts. "Does that mean mom was already dead before she died?"

"Yeah, technically." Damon said and braced himself when Katie gasped in realization.

"Are you dead too?" She asked him with new tears forming in her eyes.

"I am." Damon didn't know what he could say other than the truth. To his surprise, Katie's eyes filled with sympathy rather than fear.

"I'm sorry." She said and gave him one of her rare hugs.

"Don't be." Damon chuckled, patting her back. "I'm not dead as in _gone_, as you can see, and there are a lot of good things about being a vampire too."

"Like what?" Katie looked up at him.

"We are super strong, super-fast and we have super hearing." He told her. "And we heal quickly and our blood can heal humans if they drink it."

"Oh." Katie looked at him from under her eyelids, before shyly asking. "Can it heal me?"

"Doesn't look like it I'm afraid." Damon stroked her hair in sympathy. "Your body seems to repel it; I put some of my blood in the smoothie you couldn't keep down last night."

"Oh." Katie said again, sadly.

"Are you still sore?" Damon asked her and she nodded, tearing up yet again. She furiously wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"There's something we could try." He said, grasping the glass of human blood. "This is human blood, drink some of that and see how that works for you."

"Whose blood is it?" Katie gasped.

"Nobody's" Damon said. "I mean, nobody died for us to get it. It's from the hospital's blood bank."

Katie wrinkled her nose, but she was willing to try anything that would take away the pain in her bottom so she took a little sip from the glass that Damon was holding out to her. She swallowed with her eyes closed.

"Yuck." She said with a little frown.

"But you're keeping it down." Damon muttered. "How do you feel?"

"Better" She burst out in surprise. "It doesn't hurt as much."

"How about that." Damon smirked. "Have some more, until it's not hurting at all anymore."

"Noo…" Katie said floatingly. "I'm ok."

"What now?"

"It's really disgusting." Katie mumbled.

"Ah." Damon thought through it quickly. He contemplated letting her off the hook, allowing her to stay sore for a few more days. In a way, it was cheating to heal her completely: a punishment was a punishment and a spanking was supposed to hurt for some time as a reminder. Then again, he wasn't exactly up for feeling guilty every time he'd see Katie wince or grimace at sitting down and he most definitely didn't want to wake up from her crying again, knowing he had been the one to cause her pain. Knowing that he had been unfairly harsh and that she hadn't even deserved half of that harshness. That was more of the problem actually; that he had been wrong and acting much too impulsively. If Katie had done something worse, purposely causing trouble, he might have felt differently but this time, the punishment didn't fit the crime. Nowhere near. So he told her:

"Think of the blood as medicine. Have you ever needed to take medicine that you didn't like?"

"Yeah." Katie shuddered at the memory. "Cough drops."

"But they got you better, didn't it?"

"Yes." Katie admitted.

"So just drink this and you'll stop hurting." Damon said, pushing the glass closer to her. "It'll be over in like a minute."

"Ok." Katie sighed and allowed Damon to help her drink the blood. She grimaced when she had emptied the glass but then looked up at him smiling: "It doesn't hurt at all anymore!"

"Glad to hear it." Damon put the glass on the tray and ruffled Katie's hair but she looked at him hesitantly. "What?"

"Are you ever going to spank me again?" She asked, turning her head to look down at her lap.

"If you behave I won't have to." Damon replied but then he sighed. Admitting he was wrong didn't come easily to him. Neither did apologizing. "Look, Katie… I can't promise that I won't punish you when you disobey, because trust me I will… but I _can _promise you that it will never be like last night. I won't let myself lose control that way again and I'll never again cause you the kind of pain that makes you wake up in the night or need to drink human blood. That sound reasonable enough to you?" He couldn't believe he was asking the child's approval but she nodded.

"Yeah." She told him and he patted her head lightly.

They remained still for a while before Katie spoke up again:

"Damon?"

"What?"

"What happened to the man, I mean the hybrid; that took me yesterday?" Katie asked with a deep frown on her face.

"He's gone away now." Damon said fleetingly.

"Do you know him?" Katie asked, to Damon's relief not appearing to realize that he had meant gone as in dead.

"Vaguely." Damon shrugged, not wanting to explain to Katie that she had been kidnapped by her auntie Caroline's boyfriend. Nor that he had killed him. Katie seemed to be satisfied with his answer and Damon smoothed out her hair before rising from the bed.

"I'll let you get dressed." He said, picking up the breakfast tray.

He left her room and as he went downstairs he shook his head, wondering what the hell was going on with him. Not counting the outburst resulting in close-to-abusive corporal punishment, he was turning softer each day.

**XXX**

The moment Damon stepped into the parlor after having cleared Katie's breakfast tray, he was met by Elena who promptly walked up and slapped him across the face. Damon's eyes widened in slight surprise and he rolled his jaw even if it hadn't hurt in the slightest.

"Well, good morning to you too." He said, smirking.

Elena crossed her arms over her chest and took a few steps back, as Damon walked past her to have a drink.

"I can't believe you." Elena scolded. "How could you hurt a _child _like that?"

"I didn't hurt her anywhere near as much as Dickhead Lockwood or Klaus would have!" Damon hissed back with a dangerous frown. He took a sip from his bourbon and said in a more normal tone: "She broke the house rules and almost got herself killed. She needed to be disciplined."

"And you couldn't have done it any other way?" Elena yelled.

"I wanted to make a lasting impression." Damon said tiredly and sat down. Hadn't he already had this discussion with Stefan? He didn't think he should have to defend himself to either of them, it was between him and Katie and it was enough for him that they were on good terms now.

"What, lasting scars?" Elena snorted and sat down next to him.

"She won't get scars from a spanking!" Damon spat out. "Don't be ridiculous. Sure, I might have overdone it but I gave her some human blood and now it's all healed. All she went through was one night with sore buttocks, which I assure you will be far less than if she ever does anything like it again."

"Maybe not physical scars, but she might not even dare to move in fear that you'll… Wait!" Elena interrupted herself. "Did you say you gave her human blood?"

"She was bound to have some vampire sides." Damon shrugged. "Don't worry, she didn't like it. I practically had to force it down her throat."

"God, I really hope you didn't" Elena said, remembering when he had forced his own blood down _her _throat not so long ago.

"Would you rather have unable to sit for a month?" Damon snarled.

Elena stiffened and looked at him, almost in fear.

"How hard did you hit her?" She asked.

"Like I said." Damon looked away. "I might have overdone it."

"You feel guilty about it." Elena stated. "There's at least some decency in you."

"I don't feel guilt over punishing her, what she did was stupid." Damon looked back at her with a look in his eyes that Elena hadn't really seen before. "But the hm…_severity_ of it I do regret." He frowned at his own words, as if he was having a hard time believing he had actually said them out loud.

Elena couldn't believe how she always forgave Damon, how she'd gotten used thinking that violence was just his way and that he sometimes couldn't help himself. She was angry about how she always melted when he was sincerely sorry about having crossed the line. Still, in the past weeks she had seen him with Katie and she knew that he was changing. Having Katie to take care of was changing him for the better. The sides of Damon that she liked and trusted were showing more and more and the sides of him that she had simply learned to live with only made guest appearances nowadays. Without realizing what she was doing, she leaned forward and kissed Damon's cheek. He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"I think you're going to be a good father to her, Damon." Elena whispered. "You just…" She struggled to find the right words. "You just have to be less… _Damon_ and more you."

He smirked. "How poetic." He teased her.

"You know what I mean" Elena slapped his arm.

"I do." Damon turned serious. "And thank you. For believing I can do this."

"I know you can." Elena said and rose from the couch. "And remember, you don't have to do it all by yourself."

**XXX**

Since Stefan had gone out to do something for his mysterious get-rid-of-the-hybrids plan, there was just Damon, Elena and Katie in the house. Elena had made it her mission to see to it that Katie had fun today, so she had brought over all of the board games that she owned. She forcefully made sure that even Damon played along and they were at it for hours. Around lunchtime, Damon was amused by the fact that Elena was the only one actually having fun since well more than an hour. Katie had seemed to like playing during the first two games but now she had grown tired of it and probably remained in her chair to keep Elena happy.

"Yes!" Elena did a high-five with herself when Damon ended up on one of her hotel-crammed streets in monopoly, being forced to pay her lots of fake money.

"Katie." Damon turned to his daughter, who tiredly looked up at him. "In the drawer in the hallway there is a pizza menu, do you want to go get it and see what you want and we'll order some lunch?"

"Ok!" Katie practically flew out of the dining room where they had covered the mahogany table with different games.

"But I'm winning!" Elena complained.

"You're boring." Damon snorted. "Time for a break, not even Katie's having fun. I thought this day was supposed to be about her having a good time?"

"Oh." Elena said sheepishly. "I thought she was."

"At first, but watching you win game after game for hours gets old pretty fast." Damon smirked.

"Do you think I should have let her win?" Elena blushed, embarrassed of herself.

"No!" Damon exclaimed like it was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. "How would you have liked it if you found out that you hadn't won for real?"

"Fine." Elena smiled to herself at Damon wanting to protect Katie from hurt feelings. "I am pretty hungry actually, let's go order some food."

They both rose from the table and went out to find Katie in the parlor, sitting on the couch and reading the pizza menu. Damon and Elena sat down on each side of her, Damon lightly poking a finger in between two of Katie's ribs, making her squeal and let out a little giggle before she turned back to her concentrated reading.

"Find anything?" Damon asked her and ruffled her hair.

"Yeah." Katie pointed on pizza marinara. "Can I have this one, please?"

"Sure." Damon approved her choice. "What do you want Elena?"

"I'll have the same as Katie." Elena said, smiling at the little girl. "If you order a big one the two of us can share."

"And if I order a huge one we can all share." Damon stated, picking up his phone to call in the order.

"Damon, do you have any broccoli?" Katie asked timidly.

"What?" Damon let out and frowned at her. "Why would you ask me if we have broccoli?"

"It doesn't matter." Katie shrugged. "I just really like broccoli with pizza."

"I swear Katie." Damon sighed. "You are the weirdest child I have ever met."

"_Do_ you have any broccoli?" Elena shot in, thinking that Damon was an idiot if he didn't seize the opportunity to give his child vegetables. Not that Katie seemed too difficult in that department but still.

"No!" Damon spat out. "Why would I? Broccoli is disgusting."

They sat in silence for a few moments, Elena and Damon throwing each other annoyed glances. Katie looked from Damon to Elena, and back. After some hesitation, Katie climbed up on Damon's lap and hugged him briefly around his neck.

"I'm sorry if I made you upset." She told him. "I don't need broccoli, really I don't!"

"Of course you can have broccoli." Damon sighed taken aback by her gesture. "You don't have to apologize, nobody's upset." He lifted her off him and placed her back down next to Elena as he rose.

"Stay with her while I go to the grocery store." He said. "Here's money for the pizza; I don't need to tell you not to invite them in."

He picked out a few bills from his wallet and gave them to Elena before he left. Impressive, he thought. From hunting hybrids to hunting broccoli in less than twenty-four hours.

**XXX**

"Look who I ran into on the porch." Damon smirked as he came back twenty minutes later. "Emo teen."

"Jeremy!" Katie happily burst out at the sight of the sixteen-year-old boy following her father through the front door.

Jeremy smiled big as Katie ran up to hug him. When he had been there to visit before Katie had immediately taken a liking to him and she had asked Damon as well as Elena several times since if he would come back. She had loved to draw with him and now she was telling him about what she had been drawing since he was last there.

"After we eat you can show Jeremy all the drawings you've made." Elena said to Katie as they walked into the kitchen to eat the pizza they had already put there, since the dining room table was full of games. "You have enough drawings to cover all the walls in the house I think."

"Yeah, Katie." Damon smirked as he put some broccoli, which he had bought pre-cooked, on a plate for Katie. "You're a real environmental crook. Anyone else want some?"

"No thanks" Elena said. "I don't really like broccoli."

"I do." Jeremy held out his plate. "I'd love some."

Damon rolled his eyes but Katie looked at Jeremy as if she had just seen Jesus.

"My favorite vegetables are broccoli, Brussels sprouts and carrots. Thank you." She said when Elena put a pizza slice on her plate, but didn't take her eyes of her idol. "What are yours?"

"Can't say I'm that into any kind of sprouts." Jeremy confessed. "But I really like carrots too."

"Eat your precious broccoli then, Katie." Damon took a bite from his pizza slice, exchanging amused looks with Elena.

"Ok, thank you for getting it Damon." Katie smiled sweetly at him before lifting her fork.

"Anytime." Damon muttered.

Katie ate quickly because she wanted to draw with Jeremy and as soon as she was done, she looked hopefully to see if Jeremy had finished too. He had, not being very hungry and Katie quickly asked to be excused, putting her plate in the dishwasher before taking Jeremy's hand and bringing him upstairs to her room. Once they had gone, Elena leaned back in her chair and laughed.

"She really seems to like Jeremy." She stated.

"M-hm." Damon helped himself to another slice of pizza.

"It's a good thing." Elena said carefully. "She needs friends."

"He's not her friend." Damon snorted. "He's a babysitter."

"To her he's a friend" Elena pushed away her plate. "Speaking of friends, when is she gonna start school?"

"She's not."

"Seriously?" Elena stared at Damon in disbelief. "You're just going to keep her here?"

"I don't see why not." Damon said casually, putting both of their plates in the dishwasher and throwing away the pizza carton as Elena kept glaring at him.

"You're going to suffocate her." She shook her head and rose, following Damon into the parlor. "And how are you planning on educating her?"

"She's already smarter than most of today's fifteen-year-olds." Damon shrugged before pouring himself a drink. "Want one?" He said, shaking the bottle at Elena.

"No, driving." Elena waved her hand as if to make the bottle fly away. "But Damon, seriously, you need to make sure Katie gets an education."

"She'll live forever, she'll have time." Damon smirked. "But since you're so persistent in your attempts to give my not so normal child a normal childhood: I had already planned on throwing Alaric a chance to moonlight as her private tutor."

"Good luck." Elena snorted.

"Inspired by another great man of Italian heritage" Damon grinned at Elena "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

He sat down on the couch and put his feet up. Elena had her hands on her hips. His smug wittiness annoyed her but she couldn't really be mad at Damon anymore. She sighed and said:

"I'll go see what Katie and Jeremy are up to."

"Tell Katie that I'll hear if they start making out and I won't be happy if I do." Damon called after her.

"Jackass." Elena muttered to herself as she was walking up the stairs.

"Heard that too!"

**XXX**

As much as Katie liked Jeremy, she was certainly not thinking along the making out line.

"I would like Jeremy to be my best friend." She very seriously confided to Damon once Elena and Jeremy had left to go home. The time was already about seven and Damon had just texted Stefan to bring some dinner.

"Oh yeah?" Damon snorted. "I hate to break it to you sweet heart, but Jeremy probably thinks you're a little young for a best friend."

"I _know, _I'm just _saying." _Katie sighed angrily, frowning at Damon as he picked her up and started carrying her upstairs. "Why are you always carrying me?"

"Because it's faster." Damon vampire sped up the stairs and into Katie's room, making her let out a shocked giggle. Damon smirked at her and put her down.

"That's really, really fast." Katie said, still smiling. "It's super cool. Will I be able to do that when I grow up?"

"I don't know" Damon answered truthfully, walking over to her closet. He picked out a pair of clean pajamas, white cotton shorts and t-shirt with Mickey Mouse on them. It had been among the things Elena had brought and Katie had approved of the Mickey Mouse print once she'd learned the pajamas were Jeremy's old ones from when he was little. Damon put the pajamas on the bed. "Take a shower and change." He told Katie. "Stefan should be back with dinner. And because I'm feeling nice today, you'll get to stay up late and watch any movie you want."

He didn't mention it was also because he was still feeling guilty, even though Katie seemed to be pretty ok with the ordeals from yesterday. He watched her as she smiled sweetly at him before running into her bathroom to shower. Damon smirked to himself and went downstairs since he had just heard Stefan coming back home.

"I hope you got something other than pizza." Damon said as he met Stefan in the hallway. "Cause we're out of broccoli."

"Huh?" Stefan looked confused. "I got Chinese."

"Then we don't have a problem." Damon walked into the television room. He looked and opened the big cupboard that held their impressive movie collection. He'd always buy anything he wanted since money wasn't an issue. Stefan came into the room, having fetched some plates from the kitchen.

"You got plates for Chinese?" Damon snorted. "Half the charm is eating out of the box. Speaking of which, I need a blood bag. Want one?"

"Yeah." Stefan said, taking the paper boxes out of the plastic bag and putting them on the coffee table. "And for your information, I got plates because I got a lot of different things. This way everyone can try everything."

"How very thoughtful of you." Damon chuckled as he left the room, catching the chopstick Stefan threw at him in mid-air.

**XXX**

They all ate in silence as they watched the Titanic. Damon wondered if Katie knew how long the movie was and if she had chosen it deliberately to get to stay up longer. He threw amused looks at how focused the little girl was where she sat on the floor, eyes hooked to the screen.

"Do you really think she should be watching this?" Stefan whispered to Damon with a frown.

"I don't see why not." Damon shrugged. "She already knows that sad things happen sometimes."

Stefan appeared to be ok with the answer and looked back at the screen. Damon wanted desperately to know what he had been up to, what his big plan was, but he was far too proud to ask. So he kept watching the film in silence. He would never have admitted it to anyone but the Titanic was one of his favorite movies. And he didn't mind the fact that it was so long one bit. When the film was nearer to the end and things started to go to hell, Damon crept down onto the floor to sit next to Katie. Just in case she was upset by everything that he knew was to come. She automatically leaned on his shoulder and a bit surprised he put his arm around her, stretching out his legs before him and leaning back on his other hand.

"Are you sure you don't want to sit on the couch?" He asked her.

"No thank you" Katie shook her head without looking away from Leonardo diCaprio being handcuffed. "I really like this rug."

Well thank god the human blood worked, Damon thought to himself with an evil little smirk. On impulse he kissed Katie's head and hugged her a little tighter to him. He heard Stefan's phone click behind him and turned around with an angry frown.

"What's your problem?" He mimicked at his obnoxious little brother.

"Just sending this to Elena, she wants to know if you're behaving yourself." Stefan grinned.

Damon just huffed and turned back. They watched the rest of the film and to Damon's surprise, Katie wasn't all that heartbroken by the end of it. She seemed a little taken however when she looked up at him.

"Were you alive when the Titanic sank?" She asked him and he noticed that her eyes actually were a little glossy. There it was, Damon thought. He had known all along that no daughter of his could watch Jack sink to the bottom of the ocean without being at least a little sad.

"Sure was." He smirked at her, remembering how much fun he'd had with a certain vampire named Sage that particular year.

"You are very old." Katie stated.

"Why thank you." Damon replied sarcastically.

"Will I be as old as you one day?" Katie asked with a little frown on her face.

"Yes."

"Good." A relieved smile flashed over Katie's face and Damon rose, picking her up in his arms.

"That is" He continued. "If you take care of yourself. Eat right, moisturize and of course: get enough sleep." He went to carry Katie upstairs. "Stefan, clean up while I put the little lady to bed will you?" He looked back at his brother with a smirk.

The younger Salvatore huffed but started gathering the plates and empty food boxes anyway. Damon went with Katie upstairs and waited in her room as she went to brush her teeth. When she was done she stood uncertainly in the doorway to her bathroom.

"Damon?" She asked hesitantly.

"What?" Damon sat down on her bed and folded away the corner of the cover for her to get in. She remained where she was.

"Do you drink blood?" She blushed a little when she asked her question, looking down at her feet.

"I do." Damon said simply. "Does that bother you?"

"I don't know…" Katie sighed. "Do you have to drink it?"

"Yeah, if I don't I'll die."

Katie looked up at him.

"Do all vampires have to drink blood?"

"Yes, Katie." Damon replied patiently.

"I'm really sorry for all of you." The little girl let out another deep sigh.

"Why is that?" Damon asked curiously.

"Because blood is _so _disgusting!" Katie said forcefully, making Damon laugh.

"Come here, you little saint." He said, patting the place from where he'd cleared away the cover. Katie climbed into bed and he put the duvet around her. "I swear, you're worse than Stefan." He leaned over her and looked her in the eye while saying in a serious tone: "Katie, you don't have to feel sorry for vampires. We actually really like blood. I guess you can say we get used to it."

"Oh, ok." Katie looked relieved for a few seconds before she asking: "Will I be a vampire when I grow up?"

"I don't know." Damon answered truthfully. "Maybe."

"Will I have to drink the blood?" Katie seemed disgusted by the thought.

"So far you've survived just fine on regular food." Damon shrugged. "I don't get why that would change and if it does, I promise we'll deal with it. Ok?"

"Ok." Katie said again, nodding and yawning a little.

"I think Archie's still in my room" Damon remembered. "I'll go get him for you."

"Thank you" Katie said solemnly. "But he only goes by his full name."

"Is that right?" Damon let out a chuckle, hardly surprised. He smirked at Katie before vampire speeding of to his room. He was back by her bed within seconds and she looked at him in amazement as he put the teddy in bed with her. "Why don't you want to call him Archie? We all call you Katie."

"Because Katherine is an awful name for awful people." Katie said in her best matter-of-fact tone. "I don't want to be an awful person. And also, Archie is just a normal name. Archibald is much, much cooler."

"Well, that could probably be argued." Damon played with some strands of Katie's hair. "But just to let you know: you are not an awful person."

"You're not awful either." Katie said gravely.

"Thanks." Damon smiled crookedly and kept running his fingers through her dark locks. "Katie… For a completely different matter, when was the last time you combed your hair?"

Katie immediately jerked her head away from his fingers, with an awkward look on her face.

"Ehm…" She blushed slightly. "I haven't combed it since I got here."

"Figures." Damon muttered. "Did your mom use to brush it for you?"

"Yeah." Katie sighed. "It's so boring and it's hard, it always gets knots in it when I wash it and I have too much! But mom wouldn't let me cut it."

"Neither will I" Damon snorted. "If you cut your hair short we might as well call you Damon 2 and that would be ridiculous. Sit up."

Katie let out another sigh but did as she was told. Damon went into her bathroom to fetch the hairbrush that Elena had gotten for Katie. There was no hair in it, a sign that it had not been used, and Damon sighed as he went back to his daughter. He sat down behind Katie, pushing her head downwards a little bit so he would get straight to the knots. He started working with the brush.

"Ow!" Katie burst out after only a few seconds.

"I've barely even started!" Damon sneered.

"It still hurts." Katie complained.

"Fine, I'll try to be more careful." Damon muttered and went from ripping the brush through her hair to sorting out the knots in smaller brush takes. Katie calmed down. "You know" Damon said after a while, when he had finally gotten to the last knot "This wouldn't happen if you just brushed it yourself every once in a while."

"I _know." _Katie said. "I just…" Her voice died away.

"Just what?" Damon demanded.

"Doesn't matter." Katie mumbled and suddenly Damon got it. She had been used to her mother doing it for her; the reminder she must have gotten from needing to do it herself was probably not a very welcome one. Damon dropped it and put his focus back on her hair. It was actually not the first time he'd brushed a girl's hair; he'd had a few girlfriends who when absolutely loved it when he brushed their hair. He imagined it was a more pleasant experience when it wasn't full of knots and tangles however because Katie did not seem to be loving it at all. Damon really did try to be gentle but it still took a fair amount of violence to sort the mess that was Katie's hair. Eventually, after the final knot was dissolved, he kept brushing through her dark waves. He noticed how her shoulders became less tense and her breathing more even after a little while, when it was no longer hurting. He kept going a little longer, until her hair was shining.

"There." He eventually said, putting the brush on her nightstand and getting her to lie back down. "All right, I'll make you a deal. I'll brush your hair for you when it's harder to do it, like after you wash it, if you do it yourself a little every day. And I'll get you some ribbons or whatever so you can put it up and it won't get tangled as easily. Ok?"

"Ok" Katie nodded.

"Good." For the second time that night, Damon put the cover over her and then he planted a soft kiss on her forehead. "Now it's really about time you went to sleep; it's past midnight. Sleep well, little weirdo."

"Good night." Katie didn't even react to the unconventional nickname, just yawned and rolled over on her side, clutching Archibald with one arm. Her newly brushed hair practically sparkled in the light from her bedside lamp and Damon turned it off before slowly backing out of the room, almost unable to take his eyes of the already sleeping little girl.

**XXX**

**All right then, to use Damon's words: It's back to sunshine and rainbows (was that what he said in chapter 3?) At least for now… I hope you liked the chapter, in spite of it being such a long one. Please review and let me know what you think! Thank you for reading.**

**xo**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you for the reviews and thanks to all of you who managed to get through the last incredibly long chapter. This one is a little shorter, hope you don't mind! It's also ridiculously fluffy. Enjoy and thanks for reading and reviewing **

**Priya: Haha, we'll see... Klaus is coming soon, I might be putting it off a little because I find him hard to write. Thanks for your lovely review!**

**XXX**

"Damon?" asked Katie about a week later. She was drawing on the floor in front of the fireplace while Damon was reading and drinking bourbon on the couch. It had become their nightly routine before Katie went to bed. Damon often acted as if he was simply waiting it out until Katie would finally go to sleep but in reality he loved this part of the day.

"Katie?" Damon replied, mimicking the outdrawn way she had said his name. Katie let out a little giggle at that and he looked up from _One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest_ and smirked at her.

"I have been wondering about something a lot." Katie said in a serious tone that sounded funny in her little childish voice.

"What?" Damon couldn't help but snorting slightly with laughter.

"Why don't you have any pets?"

Damon had certainly not expected that question.

"Why would you ask that?" He put his book down, sensing that he might not be getting back to it in a while.

"I don't know" Katie shrugged. "I have always really wanted to have a cat and mom said I would have one when I was big enough to look after it myself. You don't have any pets but you and Stefan both are big enough to take care of one."

"Well, not everyone wants furry things getting hair on their antique furniture." Damon rolled his eyes at his daughter.

"I _know." _Katie sighed as if Damon was slow. "But you're my dad so you should like animals too. It should be in your genes."

Damon chuckled, wondering where she got it all from.

"For your information, I don't exactly hate cats. Mind you, I don't particularly like any kind of animals so I highly doubt that it's genetic."

"Oh." Katie said disappointed, looking down on her drawing. It was of a cat drinking milk from a carton.

"Are you asking me to get you a pet, Katie?" Damon asked amused, raising his eyebrows.

"No!" Katie exclaimed before she blushed and added. "I was just wondering."

"I won't get mad just because you ask me for things." Damon told her, sensing what was behind her sudden defensiveness. "At least not the first time you ask them. So stop your worrying and ask me if we can get a cat." Damon smirked.

"Ok" Katie smiled a relieved little smile before looking up at him. "Ehm… Can we get a cat?"

When Damon didn't answer within the first second she added:

"I promise I'll take care of him, I'll do everything! I like taking care."

Damon thought about it for a few moments. It might not be such a bad idea for Katie to have a pet; it would be company for her and keep her occupied. Damon had been discussing tutoring with Ric on the phone and the latter had agreed to tutor Katie, starting in the New Year since the term was almost over and he had to organize his schedule. However, it would only be for two hours each weekday and it was almost a month left before they would start, even if Alaric had placed orders for some exercise books for Katie to do on her own or with Damon until then. The rest of the time Katie would still need things to keep her occupied, things that would make life within the walls of the boarding house less boring. And after all, Damon realized, Christmas was coming closer.

"I'll consider it, and let you know within a week." He promised her, as if about to conclude a business meeting. "Now, I think it's time for you to go to bed."

"Ok!" Katie said happily, content that Damon had said he'd think about getting a cat.

Damon rose from the couch to walk upstairs with her, taking some of her drawing things to help her carry them. Well inside her room he put the stuff away and tucked Katie in. She was asleep before he was even out of the room and he chuckled to himself on his way back downstairs. In the living room he found Elena had come into the house and was now sitting on the leather sofa reading on the backside of the book he'd left there.

"Well hello." Damon said with a smirk as he collapsed down next to her.

"Hey" Elena put the book down. "Have you seen Stefan today?"

"Nope." Damon shrugged. "He's out killing hybrids."

"Right." Elena sighed. "God, I hope he's careful."

Damon just snorted at that and Elena threw a cushion at him before asking:

"How's Katie doing?"

"Juuust dandy." Damon said smirking.

"Damon." Elena rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, she's fine." Damon told her. "She wants a cat."

He stretched out his legs and put his hands under his head.

"Really?" Elena smiled. "Are you gonna get one?"

"Probably." Now Damon was the one rolling his eyes. "That girl is so spoiled."

"No she's not." Elena snorted.

"Is too."

"Is not and you know it." Elena let out a laugh knowing Katie was everything but spoiled, in spite of her father being loaded. "Besides, it's Christmas soon. And when is her birthday?"

"I don't know." Damon frowned.

"You don't know when her birthday is?" Elena exclaimed. "Seriously Damon, just because you've had plenty of them you could appreciate the fact that Katie's only seven. Or is she seven?"

"She might be six." Damon said awkwardly.

"Oh god." Elena sighed.

"Wait, wait!" Damon yelled. "I know, _kind of. _I can do the math. When Hannah first told me she was pregnant she was three months along and this was…" He paused to think. "Mid June." He moaned slightly. "Meaning her birthday must be coming up."

"We have to find out." Elena decided, rising from the couch as if she was about to march upstairs straight away and ask Katie.

"Elena." Damon raised his eyebrows. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know." Elena admitted awkwardly. "I just think it would be terrible if we missed her birthday."

"So I'll find out." Damon said calmly, getting off the couch himself. "I know what city she's from, the hospital here must be able to call there and get her birth certificate from their database or something. I'll just do some compelling and I'll know in an hour."

He started walking out of the room and turned in the doorway, looking back at Elena:

"You'll stay here in case Katie wakes up, won't you."

"Sure" Elena nodded. "Good luck."

Damon smirked at her one last time before leaving.

**XXX**

"So?" Elena asked when Damon came back, attacking him in the hallway. "When is it?"

"Hannah actually put me on the birth certificate." Damon said wondrously, not answering her question. "Can you believe that?"

"Yes, I can, you're her father." Elena said impatiently. "When is Katie's birthday?"

"And her middle name is Josephine" Damon continued. "Always liked that name."

Elena had never seen Damon like this before and she was quite amused by it. However, she still wanted to know:

"When's her birthday?"

"December seventh." Damon said casually but then he suddenly frowned. "Tomorrow."

"Well, have you gotten anything for her?" Elena asked.

"Why would I if I didn't even know it was her birthday?" Damon hissed at her.

"I don't know, maybe you would have gotten her something for Christmas."

"Please" Damon scoffed. "Christmas is _weeks _away."

"Still." Elena went with Damon as he started walking towards the kitchen.

"Have you gotten her anything for Christmas?" Damon suddenly asked her, after he put some coffee on.

"No." Elena admitted and rolled her eyes at Damon's triumphant smirk.

"This house is basically a treasure chamber." Damon said casually as he got two mugs out of the cupboard. "I'll find her something, wrap it and voilà!"

Elena seemed happy enough with that and jumped up to sit on the counter, starting to smell the coffee that was in the making.

"Why are you making coffee?" She asked Damon. "It's like ten p.m."

"Because" Damon said walking over to the fridge. "I have a cake to bake and I need some energy."

"Really?" Elena couldn't hold back a laugh.

"Really." Damon said as he started whisking eggs and sugar in a bowl. "Feel free to help."

"Ok…" Elena jumped off the counter. "What can I do?"

**XXX**

About an hour and a half later they got the raspberry cake ready and in the fridge, just waiting to be served.

"Do you have any candles?" Elena asked as she put the last bowl in the dishwasher.

Damon didn't justify her question with an answer but simply raised his eyebrows at her.

"Ok, fine." Elena sighed. "I'll come by early tomorrow. The stores are closed now."

"Thank you." Damon said sincerely as he went to show her out.

"How many?" Elena asked, realizing she had forgotten to ask before how old Katie was.

"Seven." Damon replied. "We weren't too far off."

They stopped in the hall as Elena put her coat on.

"I don't get why she didn't tell you it was her birthday tomorrow." She said in wonder.

"Maybe she forgot." Damon shrugged.

"What kind of kid forgets her birthday?" Elena exclaimed.

"What kind of kid likes broccoli on pizza?" Damon retorted.

Elena let out a little giggle.

"Point taken." She said. "Anyway, tell Stefan I said hi and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night Elena." Damon closed the door behind her and walked into the library. With determined steps he walked over to one of the bookshelves, pushed his hand past a few of them and got out a small wooden box that was hidden behind them. He opened it to find the same thing he had left there some years earlier. It was a silver necklace with a small pendant with a tiny lapis lazuli stone in the middle. It was the same style as the vervain necklace Stefan had given Elena but smaller and of course with the lapis instead. Damon had found it in an antique shop a little more than seven years before, planning on giving it to Hannah. He had meant to take her out to a quiet dinner and tell her all about what he was and ask her to accept him for it anyway. Well, tough luck. Katherine had gotten to her before and made him out to be a monster. Which he had been from time to time but still. Then Hannah had said she was pregnant and he had freaked out, almost confirming what she thought he was. He would never forget the terrified look on her face. Then he had got his control back and left. Because she wanted him to leave. The necklace he had still had on him. Now Katie would have it. Damon put it back in the box and the box went into his pocket. He left the room, vaguely noticing that Stefan seemed to have come back. He meant to go straight to his own bedroom but instead he found himself walking into Katie's. He towered over her in the dark, watching as she moved around in her sleep. He leaned down and stroked her cheek, careful not to wake her up. He thanked his lucky star that Elena had chosen tonight to ask him when Katie's birthday was or he would not have known. His little girl would have turned seven without anybody even acknowledging it. Damon quietly walked out of the room to go to bed. He had a birthday to celebrate in the morning.

**XXX**

"Hey" Elena said as she came into the kitchen, where Damon and Stefan already waited. The cake they had made the night before was sitting on the kitchen table along with a vase of flowers that Stefan had retrieved from the garden after Damon roughly shook him awake. It was not yet dawn but Damon claimed they couldn't take any chances; Katie might wake up at any time.

"I'll put them in." Elena said, taking out the birthday candles from her bag and starting to put them in the cake.

"No pink." Damon told her. "It's bad enough it's a raspberry cake."

"She likes pink food." Stefan said calmly, ignoring Damon's glare.

Stefan had known straight away what to give Katie for her birthday. He had found it a few weeks earlier, a first edition copy of Alice in Wonderland. He had planned on giving it to her for Christmas but this would do just as well. He had wrapped it as soon as he found it, so it was all ready to be given away.

"So do we wake her up or wait for her to come down?" Elena asked.

"Wait for her, she'll be up soon." Damon decided. "Coffee Elena?"

"Please." Elena sighed, sitting down at the table as Damon poured her a mug. "Thanks."

"Did you hear?" Stefan asked Damon suddenly.

"She's up." Damon stated, focusing his ears and hearing the water run in Katie's bathroom as she brushed her teeth. "Quick, light the candles!" He hissed at Elena, who immediately did as he said. "Coming down the stairs…" Damon said warningly, noticing that Elena had only lit three out of seven. Stefan lit a match to help her. They were done the second before Katie appeared in the doorway, in her pajamas and clutching Archibald as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"Happy birthday!" Stefan and Elena shouted with big smiles on their faces and Damon muttered something with a slightly twisted smile, not quite comfortable with the bright and bubbly.

Katie's eyes widened at the sight of the cake and then she smiled up at Damon, blushing slightly.

"I forgot it was my birthday" She told him awkwardly.

Damon smirked at Elena who let her arms up in defeat.

"How did you know it was my birthday today?" Katie asked them all in wonder as Damon scooped her up in his arms.

"We're very clever." Damon said and put Katie down on the chair in front of the cake.

"Make a wish!" Elena said, squeezing Katie into a little hug.

Katie looked up at Damon who nodded encouragingly. Katie let out a little smile, drew a deep breath and managed to blow out all her candles at once.

"Wow" Stefan said as he, Elena and Damon clapped their hands. "Not a bad set of lungs there, Katie."

Katie giggled.

"Thank you!" She said. "I've never had cake in the morning before."

"There's a first for everything." Elena beamed at Katie as she started cutting cake slices and putting it on plates for everyone.

Damon and Stefan sat down on each side of Katie.

"I have a little something for you." Stefan said, holding out his present for her to open.

"Thanks Uncle Stefan!" Katie beamed at him before starting to open it. She was extremely slow, very careful not to break the flower patterned wrapping paper.

"Yes, Katie, we so have the time to sit here all day." Damon said sarcastically, rolling his eyes and earning glares from Stefan and Elena.

"Almost done." Katie defended herself and got the paper off. "Wow!" She burst out when she saw the book. "It's the prettiest book I've ever seen! Thank you!"

"Hope you'll like its content to." Stefan smiled and wrapped his arms around her as she climbed onto his lap and hugged him lightly.

"Yeah, hm, Katie." Elena said. "I don't have my present with me so I'll have to get it for you later. Sorry."

"You don't have to give me presents Elena." Katie looked at her as if surprised that Elena had thought she should give her anything. "It's just my birthday."

"Yeah, I remember Hannah was all new age but here birthdays are important." Damon shot in. "Apparently" He added throwing a smirk Elena's way. He took out the wooden box holding the necklace from his pocket and opened it to show Katie its content.

"Happy birthday, little one." He said.

"Wooow." Katie held up the necklace. "Is it really for me?"

"No, it's for the other little girl sitting behind you." Damon rolled his eyes. "Of course it's for you. Here, I'll put it on for you."

"Thank you!" Katie said, smiling up at Damon as he clasped the necklace around her neck. The chain was perhaps a little long but when she was older it would be perfect.

"You're welcome, sweetheart." Damon mumbled and kissed her head. "Let's have some cake!" He said in a louder voice. Seeing Katie become so happy over such a small affair nearly broke his heart and made him wonder what her living conditions had been like before. Not that he approved of greedy kids that became part of over-consumption within their first year but Katie didn't seem as if though she had ever had her birthday celebrated. And she was so well-behaved (for the most part) that it was almost suspicious. Damon remembered that Hannah had been very annoyed with stuff like this; she had hated Christmas and the one time he had tried to give her something for Valentine's Day she hadn't spoken to him for a week. But would she really go as far as to not even celebrate her daughter's birthday?

"So Katie." Damon asked casually. "What do you normally do for your b-day?"

"Mom makes me a cake with candles and we eat together_._" She looked sad at the thought of her mother but collected herself and smiled. "Like now. But not in the morning."

"Do you have parties?" Elena asked, understanding what Damon wanted to find out. "Do your friends come over to play and give you presents?"

"No." Katie shook her head. "And I've never been to a birthday party because when there are parties at children's houses you have to bring presents and I'm not allowed. My mom thinks, I mean _thought_, that birthday presents are unnecessary in today's society because children normally have too much things already and that they're spoiled."

Stefan couldn't help but laughing at the big words coming out of the little girl's mouth. He stopped when Damon glared at him.

"What do you think about that?" Stefan asked Katie.

"I think it's true." Katie said gravely. "Since I came here I have had lots and lots of books and clothes and things and some of it I don't need. So I'm probably spoiled now." She let out a sad sigh, putting her spoon down. Appearing to be seriously upset that she might be spoiled. Damon snorted with laughter but now it was his turn to be stopped with an annoyed glance, from Elena. He cleared his throat and cupped Katie's head in his hands, making her look at him.

"Katie, marking the occasion that is your birthday with a few gifts and a cake doesn't make you spoiled." He told her. "And sure, we've given you things but have you asked for any of them or taken any of it for granted? No. Besides, you need clothes and I'd be an idiot if I denied you books to read. Trust me; you're probably about as far from the kids your mom was referring to as humanly possible." He let go of her little face and stroked her hair back.

Stefan and Elena were nodding their heads violently to confirm what Damon had said and Katie seemed to relax. She hesitated for a moment and then stood up on her chair, climbing onto Damon's lap and hugging him around his neck.

"Thank you Damon" She whispered. "This is my best birthday ever."

"And it's about to get better." Damon said hugging patting her back as she turned back to the table and sat down on his left leg. "Elena's getting you a cat later today."

He hadn't been able to resist and seeing the utterly surprised, heart-wrenchingly happy look on Katie's face he didn't regret it one tiny bit.

**XXX**

**Ok, there it is! I hope it wasn't disturbingly fluffy and eventless. I promise more action soon! Please review and thanks for reading.**

**xo**


	14. Chapter 14

**Wow, thank you so much for your amazing reviews for the last chapter! You guys are so amazing! I'm glad you like the way Katie is and that you don't mind fluffy because this following chapter might be even worse than the previous one... I hope you'll all enjoy it! Special thanks to LiveBreatheVampires and Emily for ideas and thanks again to the rest of you for your wonderful, wonderful feedback. Your reviews inspire me do write more and do better so please keep em' coming ;) **

**XXX**

"I think you should take her out somewhere." Stefan suddenly suggested to Damon when Katie had disappeared upstairs to get changed. "I know for a fact that Klaus is out of town, probably trying to replace the hybrids I've beheaded lately. It shouldn't be a problem."

He smiled, appearing to be pleased with himself.

"I hardly recognize you these days." Elena said in wonder to Stefan before Damon had a chance to answer. "You suddenly enjoy killing people and I don't ever see you."

"Well, that's why I think Damon and Katie should go out for the day." Stefan smiled and took Elena's hand. "We'll have the house to ourselves."

"I have to get a cat."

"Well, after."

"Hang on a second!" Damon shot in. "I haven't agreed yet." His eyes narrowed as he glared into Stefan's. "Are you sure the hybrids are laying low? As in positive?"

"Yes." Stefan said seriously. "If you're worried about staying in Mystic Falls, just go somewhere else, take a drive."

Damon thought about it. Since finding out the reason for why she couldn't go out, Katie hadn't mentioned it once. Given she was a child, Damon had been highly impressed by how well she had taken everything and how patient she was. He realized now how much he would like to reward her for that. He doubted that if he took her out once, she would expect to be allowed every day. It would just be a treat, for her birthday.

"Fine." He growled. "I'll take her out somewhere but anything that might happen is on you, little brother."

"I'll take those odds." Stefan said confidently, grinning towards Elena who smiled back.

Damon rolled his eyes and walked out of the kitchen, going upstairs to Katie's room. As he was about to knock the door flew open and Katie appeared, dressed and ready for the day. She appeared to have brushed her hair even, because it shone.

"Hi Damon." She said and held up an elastic. "Can you please help me put my hair in a ponytail?"

"Sure thing." He said and crouched down before her. "Turn around."

Katie did as he said and Damon collected her hair in a high ponytail. Admittedly, he had gotten better at this lately.

"There" He said when he was done, spinning Katie around to face him again. "So Katie, how would you like to go out today?"

"Out where?" Katie asked cautiously.

"I don't know yet." Damon shrugged. "Somewhere fun, wherever you want."

Katie squirmed uncomfortably and Damon put a hand on her shoulder as he looked in her eyes.

"Hey." He said. "What's wrong?"

"Isn't it dangerous?" Katie whispered. "Aren't there hybrids and vampires everywhere?"

"Not anymore, at least not as many." Damon explained. "And you're not in any danger as long as you're with me, I'll make sure."

Katie looked slightly more relieved. She smiled a little at Damon.

"Look, if you don't feel good about this we won't go." Damon said. "I won't force you. But right now you don't have to be afraid of what's out there and I promise you that if you feel scared or uncomfortable in _any _way you just have to tell me and we'll go straight home."

"Ok." Katie smiled wider. "I'd really like to go out."

"That's what I thought." Damon smirked and stood up straight. "Grab your jacket and we'll go."

Katie ran back inside her room and came out wearing her jean jacket.

"Don't you have a warmer one?" Damon asked her. When he had been out last night it had felt as if snow was in the air.

"No" Katie shook her head. "But I have three shirts under!"

"Fine." Damon muttered as he guided her downstairs, realizing their first stop would have to be a clothes shop.

Even if she tried to hide it, Katie was practically jumping with excitement at the prospect of going outside. She waited as patiently as she could when Damon put his leather jacket on. He then took the coat hanger that held Elena's coat and reached into the sleeve in which she had stuffed her knitted scarf, bonnet and mittens. Luckily they were not pink, but dark purple. Damon tied the scarf around Katie's neck, pulled the bonnet down over her head and gave her the mittens to put on herself. She hesitated.

"Aren't these Elena's?" She asked Damon with a frown.

"She won't mind, let's go." Damon said with only a slight hint of frustration in his voice. He made a move to walk out the door but noticed Katie wasn't following him. Sighing he turned back into the house.

"Elena!" He shouted.

"What?" Elena came out from the parlor where she and Stefan had been doing god knows what.

"You don't mind if Katie borrows this, do you?" Damon asked impatiently, gesturing at Katie.

"Of course not." Elena smiled at Katie who relieved smiled back.

"Thank you Elena!" She said and Damon rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, thank you Elena, let's go Katie." He took her hand and almost dragged her outside.

Elena laughed a little to herself as she saw Katie turn back and wave happily at her before the door was pushed shut by Damon. The smile remained on her face as she walked back to Stefan.

Well outside, Katie's enthusiasm over finally being allowed to leave the house returned quickly. She stopped beside the car before getting in and inhaled deeply, closing her eyes.

"What _are _you doing?" Damon asked her, amused.

"I'm breathing in the fresh air." Katie explained and inhaled again. However, all that cold air in her nose caused her to sneeze.

"You'd better get in the car before you breathe yourself to death." Damon said, opening the door for Katie and helping her into the backseat. He closed the door behind her and walked around to the driver's seat. He trusted Stefan enough to believe that the hybrids would be no danger to Katie and even if they were he was confident that he'd be able to fight of anyone that caused them trouble. And he found that he actually wanted to show Katie around in Mystic Falls rather than to drive off somewhere else. However, since Katie needed a new coat, he decided that they would start their day out at the big shopping center a few miles out of town. Damon smiled to himself at the sight of Katie leaning against the side window, taking in every single tree they drove past. He understood her, he would have gone crazy too if someone had forced him to stay in the house for so long. He had at least gone out from time to time when Katie had been living with them, even if his time outside the boarding house had decreased drastically since she came. It had been limited to council meetings and an occasional drink with Ric or meeting with Liz.

"See anything interesting?" He asked Katie, glancing back at her.

"Everything is interesting when you haven't seen it in a while." Kate replied, flashing a smile at him.

"Always full of wisdom." Damon smirked back at her and she let out a giggle before looking back out the window.

They got to the shopping center and Damon led Katie by the hand into the big complex. Luckily it was early; the shops had just opened and the only people around were stay-at-home parents and the odd teenager who was skipping school.

"This is how it's gonna work." Damon told Katie. "You tell me when you see a shop window you think is pretty and we'll go in whatever store it is you like. Ok?"

"Ok…" Katie said hesitantly and pointed randomly. "I like that one."

It was the window of an H&M shop.

"Nope, not gonna cut it." Damon said and they walked past. "Keep walking. Next time, don't just point at whatever. _Think _about whether you really like the clothes they're showing."

Katie let out a little sigh, finding this hard. She looked to her left and to her right, trying to figure out what kind of shop she wanted to go into. She wasn't even sure why they were doing this; surely Damon couldn't possibly be meaning to buy her even more clothes than she already had. A bit further in, a shop window caught her attention. The clothes on the mannequins practically exploded with color and beautiful patterns and Katie's eyes widened at the sight. Damon noticed before she even said anything and spoke:

"Of course you'd like Desigual. Let's go in."

He took her inside the shop and asked the shop attendant where the children's coats were. He showed Katie and Damon to an area further in and hinted especially at a certain red coat. Damon realized, before Katie did herself, that she would love it. Wide and roomy and sewed together with patches, mostly of different fabrics in varying shades of red except for a patch of a turquoise flower-patterned patch on the right side, just below the color. The coat had different-sized prints of geometric flowers in blue, green and purple here and there and big red buttons. It looked warm enough for winter in Mystic Falls.

"Here." Damon said, picking out one that said "7 years" on the tag. "Try this on."

"But I already have a jacket." Katie protested, still wide-eyed and unable to keep from staring at the coat, taking in the beautiful colors.

"You need a warmer one." Damon said, shaking the coat lightly before her. "Come on Katie, this is not spoiling you, it's something you need that we're making into something you want. You can't wear just a jean jacket outside, you'll freeze to death. And I know you like this one."

His reasoning seemed to work because Katie smiled and took of her jacket. Damon took it from her and helped her on with the red coat. It was the right side and Katie looked absolutely adorable in it, it brought out the blue in her eyes and the dark in her hair and Damon could tell that she loved it. Happily he smirked to himself as she went to look in the mirror.

"It's really really pretty." She admitted.

"Great." Damon took her hand again and started walking towards the cash desk to pay. On their way they passed the accessory section and Damon snatched a knitted scarf, a bonnet and mittens all multicolored and with flower embroideries. He paid telling the cashier that Katie would be keeping the coat on and got a bag for the rest, in which he also stuffed Katie's jean jacket.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Katie repeated forcefully back in the car, playing with the buttons of the new coat. "Now I'm not cold either!"

"Ha!" Damon said triumphantly as he drove out of the parking lot. "I knew you were lying when you said you weren't cold."

Katie opened her mouth to protest but realized she couldn't and looked guilty.

"Relax Katie, I'm not mad." Damon told her, reaching back to give her knee a gentle squeeze.

Katie relaxed.

**XXX**

After the adventure at the shopping center, Damon decided to take Katie to a wildlife reservation that just happened to be nearby. He would have more than enough time to show her the few sights of Mystic Falls in the afternoon. The moment they got out of the car Damon knew he had made the right choice; Katie quite obviously loved walking in nature and her excitement at seeing the different animals that she hadn't seen before was both amusing and heartwarming. She wasn't secure enough to let go of Damon's hand but seemed more than happy anyway, especially after he lifted her up on his shoulders. Around one p.m. Damon decided that it was time to drive back to Mystic Falls to get something to eat; if Katie wasn't hungry already he figured she was likely to be soon. In the car back to time, Katie couldn't stop talking about all the different animals they'd spotted. Damon hummed and nodded but after a while he stopped listening to what she was actually saying and just relaxed at the sound of her sweet little voice. He parked in the town square and led Katie by the hand towards the Grill. She stopped chatting as she got out of the car and looked at the buildings and people around her, appearing to like what she saw.

"All right, I can't say I've ever tasted the food but the setting is nice." Damon said to Katie with a smirk as they entered the Grill. They were seated in one of the booths and a waitress handed them each a menu. While Damon decided what to get within five seconds, Katie looked at her menu with great concentration. The waitress came back the instant she noticed Damon folded closed his menu.

"What can I get you?" She asked with a flirty smile.

"Katie?" Damon ignored the waitress. "Have you decided yet or do you need some more time."

"No, I've decided." Katie smiled up at Damon who cocked his head at the waitress for Katie to tell her what she wanted. "I'll have the tuna-fish salad please!"

"You sure about that, sweetie?" The waitress said in a patronizing voice, smiling down at Katie. "We have a kid's menu right there."

She knocked her long, glittery nail on the place on the menu where the kid's choices were printed. Katie looked at Damon, uncertainly. Damon narrowed his eyes at the waitress.

"She knows what she's getting." He said to her in a voice that didn't allow questioning. "In fact, I'll have the same."

He handed her the menus with an ironic smile and she half-heartedly stuttering took their drink orders before she scattered away. Damon smiled sincerely at Katie and even winked at her, completely clueless as to where that came from. He hated tuna. Katie smiled back.

"How long have you lived here for?" Katie asked when she was sipping on her juice a few minutes later.

"Hm, not too long this time around." Damon replied. "I've come and gone."

"How many places have you lived in?" Katie's eyes widened.

"More than I can remember." Damon shrugged but smirked at how impressed Katie looked.

"Wow." She said and her eyes went dreamy before she sighed: "I want to travel the whole world but if people want to kill me I don't know if I'll dare."

Damon chuckled slightly.

"You'll travel the world someday if that's what you want." He told her. "I'll come with as your personal body guard if necessary."

Katie giggled lightly at the thought and lean back to leave room for the big salad plate as it was being placed before her. She happily dug in as soon as the waitress left again and didn't notice how Damon used his super speed to sneak the tuna out of the salad and onto the floor under the table. The stupid waitress could clean later.

They ate in comfortable silence and without giving Katie a chance to decline Damon ordered ice cream for dessert. As they had finished and Damon had just sent for the check, Caroline came through the door. Katie was sitting with her back against the entrance and didn't see her. Damon did, however, and she saw him. The look in her eyes were full of pain and anger. Making sure Katie was occupied Damon mimed "_Katie" _at Caroline as she was approaching his table, understanding she might not have seen the little girl. She stopped, looking as if she was debating with herself. Then she abruptly turned on her heal and left the place. Damon breathed out in relief and paid for their meal with his card. The stupid bitch still flirted with him when she asked for his signature. Damon took Katie by the hand and walked out of the joint without giving any tips to the annoying waitress.

**XXX**

The rest of the day passed more smoothly than Damon could have hoped for. He found that Katie was a very easy child to take out; much unlike the screaming and kicking kids they passed from time to time. Everything he suggested they do she was up for, maybe because he tried to come up with things she would like but still. They went to the historical museum, he showed her all the important buildings and they even played mini-golf, in spite of the cold weather. Damon realized that he had actually never done that before and neither had Katie. He won easily over her but that was another thing about Katie; she was everything but a bad loser and even laughed at herself when on the eighth hole she failed to even hit the ball with the club three times in a row. After the mini-golf Damon it was getting darker and Katie appeared to be tired. Having such an eventful day after being stuck in a house for over a month would do that to you. In the car on the way home, the little girl fell asleep. Damon parked the car slowly outside the boarding house, not driving full speed and hitting the breaks hard as he normally did. All not to wake the sleeping child in the backseat. When he carried her inside, the Desigual bag swaying from his wrist, he ran into Elena in the hallway. She was about to leave.

"Great, you can have your stuff back." Damon said, referring to the scarf, bonnet and mittens Katie was still wearing.

"What happened?" Elena burst out, looking at Katie.

"Relax." Damon sneered. "She fell asleep in the car."

"Oh." Elena said sheepishly.

"As touching as your worrying about my daughter is, will you please remove your accessories from her so I can put her down?" Damon smirked at her and Elena quickly but carefully took her bonnet and mittens off of Katie.

"Did you have fun?" She whispered as Damon shifted Katie in his arms so it would be easier for Elena to untie the scarf from around her neck. "I see you got her a warmer coat."

"Yup, though it wasn't the easiest thing getting her to actually accept it." Damon snorted but then cracked a smile. "We had a blast; my kid is almost as fun as I am."

"Glad she had fun." Elena stroked Katie's hair. "She has a little friend waiting for her in her room."

"Don't you want to stay to see her reaction?" Damon frowned.

"I thought it should be a family thing." Elena shrugged. "I don't want to impose."

"Don't be ridiculous." Damon sneered and started walking into the parlor to put Katie on one of the couches. In the doorway he turned back to Elena.

"Stay." He ordered before disappearing.

Elena rolled her eyes at him bossing her around but she still took her coat off.

**XXX**

Stefan and Elena were in the kitchen cooking dinner while Damon had stayed in the parlor with Katie to have a drink. He looked away from the fire towards Katie when he heard her stir. She opened her eyes and gazed tiredly at him.

"Did I fall asleep?" She asked in wonder.

"You went out like a light." Damon replied, putting his glass down.

Katie sat up and crawled across the couch to sit next to him. Damon put his arm around her.

"Come on." He said, rising from the couch and picking Katie up in his arms. "Elena!" He called on his way towards the stairs and she came running from the kitchen to join them.

Katie was still too sleepy to quite follow what was going on so she was mostly confused by the grins on Damon's and Elena's faces. Elena opened the door to Katie's room and showed them to the corner, where there was now a basket in which a little kitten was sleeping. Katie immediately sank down on her knees once Damon let her down.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" She asked Elena. Her voice was barely more than a whisper and she looked to be completely in awe of the little creature. It was a blonde cat with a white spot over its left eye.

"It's a girl." Elena replied with a smile on her face as Katie patter the kitten's back with extreme care. "I thought you could use some ladies company." She said the last part throwing a smirk Damon's way.

"Thank you so so much Elena!" Katie rose and threw herself around Elena's waist.

"You're so so welcome, Katie" Elena hugged her back but Katie suddenly glanced insecurely at Damon who was standing next to Elena with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Can I really keep her?" she asked him with wide eyes.

"Yes, Katie." Damon snorted and rolled his eyes. "You can really keep her."

Katie now swung her arms around Damon and he patted her head lightly, shaking his own with a little smile.

"Thank you daddy!" Katie exclaimed but quickly backed away from him when she realized what she'd said.

"Sorry!" She burst out before clasping her hands over her mouth.

Elena looked oddly at Damon, who crouched down before Katie, removing her hands from her mouth and cradling them in his own.

"Why do you say sorry Katie?" He asked her casually, but looked into his eyes to let her know that he wanted an answer.

"Because I called you daddy." Katie mumbled, looking down on her feet and avoiding his gaze.

"So?"

"You told me not to." She looked up to see Damon frown and clarified: "The day I came here. You said your name was Damon and don't think about calling you anything else."

"Ah." Damon remembered now. He kept Katie's hands in his, stroking her little wrist with his right thumb. "Well, things change. I don't mind now, you can call me whatever you want."

He shrugged to make it seem like less of a deal but he could almost hear Elena go "aaaw" in her head.

"Are you sure?" Katie asked.

"Positive." He told her. "As long as it's not Stefan."

Katie giggled and Elena huffed.

"Speaking of names." Damon said, rising but keeping a hold of Katie's right hand. "What are you gonna name your new toy?"

"She's not a toy, she's a person." Katie said gravely. "And I'm gonna name her Sushi."

"Seriously?" Damon raised an eyebrow and heard Elena stifle a laugh behind him. "Why?"

"Because I love sushi and I love her and it makes sense." Katie explained matter-of-factly.

"Since when do you like sushi?" Damon said, sitting down on Katie's bed as she got back on her knees before the kitten that was now called Sushi.

"Since forever" Katie looked a little offended.

"It's a great name, Katie." Elena said, sitting down on the floor next to her and glaring angrily at Damon. "You wanna hold her?"

"Yes please." Katie's eyes sparkled as Elena picked up the little kitten that had now woken up and was looking at Katie with light green eyes.

"Don't forget to breathe, Katie." Damon said once the kitten had been placed in Katie's arms.

Katie breathed out; she'd been holding her breath unknowingly.

"Hi Sushi." She said. "I'm really happy I'll get to take care of you because you're the most beautiful kitten in the whole world."

Elena stroked Katie's hair and the little girl giggled as the kitten jumped out of her arms and put its paws on her leg, standing up.

"I think she wants to play!" Katie burst out, looking overjoyed.

"Here" Elena said, reaching into the basket to grab a little toy mouse stuffed with cat mint. "She'll love to jump for this, just stand and hold it up for her to try and reach."

Katie did as Elena said and laughed out loud when Sushi jumped, making crazy sprints to get to the mouse. Eventually she did and Katie screeched a little before smiling as Sushi ran around in the room with the mouse in her mouth.

"She's already toilet trained." Elena told Damon. "I put one box in Katie's bathroom and one in the kitchen."

"Great." Damon said sarcastically but his eyes were on Katie as she played with the kitten. "You'll have to teach Katie all about that because I'll have nothing to do with it."

"Fine." Elena shrugged. "I'll help her if she needs it."

They both looked on as Katie was lying flat on her floor, scratching Sushi's ear. The kitten was purring loudly, appearing to love its new owner as much as Katie loved her kitten. Damon let out a chuckle.

"I can't believe how easy that girl is to please." He said.

"I can't believe how _you _got to have such an amazing kid." Elena said, poking him in the chest as she sat down next to him on the foot of the bed.

"Neither can I." Damon mumbled, barely audible to Elena's ears.

"Dinner's ready." Stefan said entering the room. "How do you like the new addition to the family, Katie?"

"Sushi is the best cat ever." Katie beamed at her uncle, who didn't at all react to the original name.

Stefan crouched down before her and patted Sushi, who had fallen asleep in Katie's lap.

"They like to sleep a lot, these creatures" He said to Katie. "What do you say we have some dinner and let her rest?"

"Can we leave the door open so she can come find us if she's lonely?" Katie asked the adults as she walked over and put Sushi down in her basket.

"No, she needs to get used to the house first." Elena said. "We'll have to walk with her around all the rooms tomorrow and then she can go on her own."

"Oh." Katie looked at Damon. "May I please have dinner in my room tonight?"

"Well, that would be a shame because I've prepared a special birthday dinner for you." Stefan said, lifting Katie up in his arms. "Cooked that spinach lasagna that you love."

"That's really really nice of you Stefan." Katie said hesitantly, still glancing at Sushi.

"Look Katie" Damon said and rose from the bed. "If the damn cat wants to get out she'll wail and scratch the door cause that's what those things do. And I _promise _I'll hear it."

"Really?"

"Really." Damon confirmed. "Vampire hearing is awesome."

"Ok." Katie cracked a smile. "Thank you, Damon slash daddy"

"You're welcome Katie slash weirdo." Damon smirked and snatched his girl out of Stefan's arms to walk downstairs with her.

Stefan and Elena followed, both of them rolling their eyes.

**XXX**

Since they had had dinner quite late it was already Katie's bedtime once they finished. She hugged both Stefan and Elena before going upstairs with Damon and, being the well-mannered child that she was, thanked them both again for her birthday presents. Damon sat on her bed and made Sushi jump for the cat mint mouse as Katie was in her bath room showering and brushing her teeth. Katie came out in her polka dot flannel pajamas, with the smile she had been wearing since long before dinner. She got into bed and Sushi immediately got tired of Damon and jumped in after her, snuggling up on top of the cover next to Katie. Katie looked up at Damon.

"Can Sushi sleep in my bed with me?" She asked with a pleading look in her eyes.

"I don't see why not." Damon shrugged and pulled the duvet closer around Katie. "But if she scratches you she's out."

"She won't" Katie said confidently. "We're friends now."

"Ok, good." Damon brushed Katie's hair back from her face and was about to turn the lights off when she spoke again:

"Daddy Damon?"

"Daughter Katie?"

"Do you think mom would be angry that I have had such a great birthday with so many amazing presents?" Katie sighed.

She looked as if this was something that was truly troubling her so Damon didn't have it in him to give a sarcastic reply.

"No." He said fiercely. "First off, you haven't had that many presents. And second, your mother would want you to be happy. Are you happy?"

"Yes." Katie nodded. "I am really really happy."

"Then there's no way your mom could be angry with you."

Katie suddenly got tears in her eyes. She put one arm around Sushi, who started purring immediately, and hugged Archibald in the other.

"I miss her." She sniveled.

"Of course you do." Damon said, wiping her tears with his thumb.

"But I'm happy you're my dad and that I can call you dad." She said, letting out a trembling sigh.

"I'm glad." Damon stretched out beside her, starting to think he might as well stay until she fell asleep. "I'm happy I'm your dad too."

Katie hesitated, and then she snuggled closer to Damon, still clutching Archibald and with Sushi jumping up on her feet to follow, and put her head against his chest, hugging him lightly. Damon put his arm around her and stroked her shoulder. He noticed she hadn't taken off the necklace he'd given her and smiled to himself. He turned off the light and put his free hand underneath his head.

"I love you, Katie." He said just before her breathing turned heavier. Her reply was a big yawn but he could still make out the words:

"I love you too, daddy."

**XXX**

**That was that, thank you for reading and please review to let me know how you liked this one! Avis11 and Priya: I swear Klaus is coming soon, please don't lose faith in me… **

**xoxo**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey everyone, thank you for your awesome, sweet and lovely reviews of the last chapter! I'm so happy you enjoyed it and especially happy to see that you liked the kitten's name and how Katie called Damon daddy (again thanks to Emily for the idea). This chapter might be a little weird and it's kind of a little experiment. Please let me know how you think it works! I'm sorry if there are an unusual amount of typos but I haven't read through it since I just really wanted to publish something on the day of the season finale ;)**

**Coffee Kitten: Wow, thank you so much! I'm glad you found the story **

**LiveBreatheVampires: It was great advice ;) Thanks for your sweet review!**

**Avis11: 3**

**XXX**

Another week passed in the Salvatore house, a fairly uneventful one which was exactly what everyone wanted. The worst drama they had was when Sushi decided she wanted her bathroom to be right below the stairs, which resulted in Damon slipping and nearly falling as he came down one morning and stepped in the cat pee. He had yelled at Katie, which had been quite unfair since she had been doing everything right with Sushi; from feeding her to showing her where her box was. It was Stefan who eventually realized that the problem was that the door to the kitchen, where the kitten had one of her toilets, had been closed before everyone went to bed the previous night. And Damon had been the one to close it. He had muttered an apology to Katie, who was quick to forgive him, and cleaned up the cat wet himself. And later that day had the kitchen door removed from its hinges and put in the basement with the blood bags they no longer needed to hide.

On the fourteenth of December, after days of trying, Elena managed to persuade Damon to let her, Jeremy and Stefan take Katie Christmas shopping. Damon had eventually felt that he had a big urge to spend some time alone; it had been a long time since he had some real privacy. Having children would apparently take that away. And Katie had been excited at the prospect of getting out of the house again, even if she had been having a lot of fun with Sushi and hardly thought about the outside world since her birthday.

Once Damon had waved Katie and the others off as they drove away in Elena's car, he slammed the front door shut and immediately went to the living room to pour himself a drink. He briefly considered booty calling his sort of on and off girlfriend for some intense sex and possibly a shared bath but decided against. He didn't feel the need for company. And besides, he wasn't quite alone since Sushi was there, lying on her current favorite spot on the leather couch. Damon said down and absent-mindedly scratched the kitten behind her ears as he looked into the fire. Eventually he leaned back and just tried to enjoy the silence in the house. To his great surprise and slight annoyance however, he found that the silence felt uneasy. He'd gotten used to hearing Katie do this or that all over the house. And he actually missed hearing her. It was ridiculous, he thought furiously to himself as he rose from the couch. The damn kid would be home in just a few hours! There was absolutely no need to be missing her, it was pathetic. He aimlessly started walking around the house but barely made it to the hall before there was a knock on the front door. Damon frowned slightly, wondering who it might be, and walked over to open. He was taken aback at the sight of Caroline. He made a move to shut the door again but she was too fast and lunged at him, pinning him to the wall and drove a branch into his stomach. Her fangs were out and her eyes were red but Damon saw that the veiny skin underneath them was wet with tears.

"Ouch." He grunted.

Caroline leaned closer to him, whispering in his ear in a shaky voice:

"You killed the love of my life."

Then she pulled away from him and stood looking at him as her fangs retracted and her face went back to normal. Then she let out a sob and sank down on her knees, crying as her blonde locks fell down and covered her face. Damon pulled the branch out of his stomach with another grunt and breathed heavily as his wound healed. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and regarded Caroline with a frown on his face.

"Come on." He said, placing his hands on her shoulders and helping her stand. He guided her into the parlor and made her sit down on one of the kitschy red sofas. He sat on the one opposite since he didn't want to be too close, should she go crazy again.

"I'm sorry about Tyler." Damon said, more sincere than he had thought he was. "But seriously, the love of your life?" He snorted. "You could do so much better; to be honest I never understood why you were wasting your time with him."

Caroline looked up with a sad smile, though her eyes had a sarcastic glint when she spoke:

"Never knew you thought so highly of me."

Damon shrugged and walked over to the drinks table and opened one of the bottles. He poured some of its content in two glasses and walked around the couch to hand one of them to Caroline. She accepted and drank half of it in one sip.

"You have your good sides." He said casually and drank some of his own scotch, now daring to sit down on Caroline's couch, albeit at the other end. "Unlike your kidnapping, murderous, sired-to-a-psychopath boyfriend."

"Please Damon." Caroline begged. "Can you not talk about him that way? I know what he did to Katie, and I…" She appeared to find it hard to say what followed. "I can't blame you. But I really did love Tyler, so for once just try and pretend that you have a hint of decency in you and keep whatever bad things you have to say about him inside."

"Fine." Damon muttered. "You want a refill?"

"Thanks." Caroline sighed, handing him back her glass. When she had it again, filled to the edge this time, she closed her eyes and shook her head. "Seriously. Tyler was such an idiot, I can't believe he kidnapped an innocent little girl, and Katie especially."

"Now who's saying bad things about him?" Damon smirked.

"I was his girlfriend, I'm allowed." She grimaced at Damon but then turned serious again. "I'm sorry Damon, that I blabbed to Klaus about Katie. He totally compelled me; it wasn't my sucky lying or constant fail to keep a secret this time. I would never want to hurt Katie."

Damon wanted to hold it against her, to blame her for everything Katie went through because of it but found he couldn't.

"I know." He sighed. "I don't blame you either."

Caroline smiled weakly. There was a somewhat awkward silence.

"So…" Caroline said eventually. "Friends?"

"Something in that direction." Damon said with a quick smirk.

"Ass." Caroline said, but couldn't quite the smile off her face.

"Barbie." Damon retorted.

"I should go I guess." Caroline said, rising from the sofa and smoothing out her t-shirt. Damon suddenly noticed that he had never seen her this badly put together before. Not that it was _bad _but Caroline was always so made-up and stylish so seeing her without any make-up and in just a t-shirt under her beige suit jacket and a pair of baggy jeans seemed strange. Add on the orange knitted scarf and weird furry boots. He wasn't exactly put off by it; it made her look older in a way that was far from unattractive. A contrast to the girls that usually did it for him but nonetheless.

"You could stay." He found himself saying. "Sit by the fire, have some more booze and once we're all drunk we can start reminiscing about when life was less complicated, back when you were human and I used you as my own personal blood bag."

"Because I truly cherish the memories from that time in my life." Caroline rolled her eyes but smiled.

"I'm pretty irresistible." Damon smirked.

Caroline snorted but sat back down on the couch.

"One more drink." She said sternly. "Then I'm leaving. When are they other's getting back by the way?"

"Around dinnertime I suppose." Damon refilled their glasses once more and sat down next to Caroline. "Cheers."

They sipped on their drinks and both gazed into the fire.

"How is Katie?" Caroline suddenly asked. "Is she doing ok after… everything?"

"She's pretty remarkable actually." Damon said, unable to hold back the smile spreading across his face. "She's so… Mature I guess would be the word. Takes everything with this grace that almost seems unnatural for a kid at her age." He let out a short chuckle. "You know I told her about me and her mother being vampires, and about Klaus and hybrids and what not and she just thought it all made perfect sense. And last week, when you saw us at the grill, it was her birthday. It wasn't as if we made a very big deal of it but she was sooo worried about 'being spoiled' because she got a few gifts." He rolled his eyes. "Speaking of" he added as Sushi jumped up on his lap, wanting to be scratched behind her ears.

"Cute" Caroline patted the kitten. "And so are you by the way, when you talk about Katie. I seriously can't believe how much having her in your life has changed you."

"Guess it's true what they say." Damon muttered. "Those damn little things rock your world."

Caroline looked down at her jean-clad knees with a sad look upon her face.

"What now?" Damon asked her.

"I just thought about how I won't be able to have kids."

"I managed, maybe you will too." Damon shrugged.

"And have a child that will be hunted for her blood her entire life?" Caroline raised her eyebrows at him. "Thanks, but no thanks! No offence or anything."

"None taken." Damon snorted. "It's not like it was my choice to have Katie. Not that I'm complaining or anything but I was quite satisfied thinking I would get to be selfish for the rest of eternity, never having to worry about anyone but me."

"But you lost that before Katie came along" Caroline pointed out as she kicked her boots of and put her feet over Damon's legs, since Sushi had jumped off of there and run out of the room.

Damon frowned and Caroline clarified:

"You're not selfish when it comes to Elena. You obviously would do anything to keep her safe, and you have gone to extreme lengths to protect her already."

Damon thought about she had said. In a way, she was right. His feelings for Elena had, on many occasions, stopped him from putting himself first. And she had helped him realize that there were other people who were more important to him than he had thought, his brother for an example. But even if Damon would now do a lot of things to keep those people safe, it was a whole different deal with Katie. He had lost enough people he'd cared about to know that eventually, as a rule, he'd cope somehow. But he couldn't even imagine life without Katie; he barely remembered what it had been like before she came along. His focus had shifted tremendously, he now realized. Knowing Katie was safe was the most important thing to him, and that was probably why it felt so weird not to have her with him today. Not a day had gone by since she came that he hadn't had her close, apart from the two days she had run away. And those days had been complete agony; he had been so worried about her.

"It's not the same." He told Caroline who immediately got an "aaw"-face. "Don't expect me to get all fluffy and tell you about the joys of parenting though cause that won't happen. But it's just not the same."

"Fine, fine!" Caroline held up her hands in defeat.

They sat in silence for another while and Damon absentmindedly started massaging Caroline's feet, which were still on his lap.

"That feels nice." Caroline mumbled.

"I know." Damon smirked and kept massaging with more intensity. Caroline let out a sigh of satisfaction.

"Know what?" Damon suddenly said and stopped what he was doing. "I just came to realize that you and I are both in a situation where we can't get what we want. And we're both being deprived of things, things that everyone needs…" He raised his eyebrows at her and she frowned before she understood what he meant.

"Seriously?" She asked in disbelief.

"Come on!" Damon lifted her legs and moved closer to her, until it was the back of her thighs that rested on the top of his. "You already know I'm good." He smirked at her and she sighed rolling her eyes.

"So full of yourself."

"Like you aren't."

Silence.

"Fine." Caroline then said, pushing herself off him and rising from the couch.

"Really?" Damon raised an eyebrow. He actually hadn't quite expected that she would agree.

"Yup, I need some distraction from being heart-broken and miserable." Caroline started walking out of his room. "Where's your bedroom?"

Damon remained where he sat for a few seconds, staring after her in disbelief before the content smirk found its way back to his lips. He stood up and went after her.

**XXX**

A few hours later, Caroline had left and Damon was downstairs in the parlor. Caroline had been nothing like he remembered her, when he had dated slash used her back when she was still human she had been good in bed. Good, not extraordinary meaning she had basically just followed him, letting him take pleasure in the act however he wanted. The Caroline he had had in bed this afternoon however… She had been a predator, taking what she wanted and making sure to get her share of satisfaction. It had been rough, tough and completely amazing. And then, after he didn't know how many times, she had suddenly stood up, gotten dress without stressing but without stalling either. Then she had just smiled politely at him, said goodbye and taken off. Damon had been shocked. He still was, as he sat with his drink thinking about today's strange turn of events. After a while, the front door opened and Elena and Stefan came in with a giggling Katie in tow.

"Hey" Damon looked over at Katie as she bounced up on the sofa, her red coat and multicolored scarf still on. "Did you have fun?" He asked the little girl.

"Yes, very fun!" Katie said, smiling up at Elena and Stefan as they too came into the parlor.

"What are you smiling about?" Damon moved closer to his daughter and started to tickle her.

"Nothing!" she laughed and tried to wriggle out of his grip. "I'm just happy to see you, daddy"

"You know how to play your cards don't you?" Damon snorted and let go of her as he rose from the sofa, ruffling Katie's hair to make sure she knew he was joking. She smirked at him and for Damon it was almost like looking in a mirror.

"So, I'll leave now" Elena told them all.

"Thank you for today Elena!" Katie exclaimed happily and got off the couch.

"Yes Elena, thank you." Damon smirked.

"You're welcome, sweetie" Elena kissed Katie's head and then turned to Stefan, ignoring Damon.

"See you tomorrow" Stefan said and kissed Elena goodbye.

"Do you mind?" Damon said putting his hand over Katie's eyes. "Children in the room!"

"Bye Damon" Elena rolled her eyes but smiled as she left.

"Bye Elena!" Katie called after her as Damon started to take her coat off of her. He handed it, along with Katie's scarf, to Stefan who took it with a sigh and went to hang them.

"Did you remember to feed Sushi?" Katie worriedly asked Damon.

"Oh, damn I knew I'd forgotten something!" Damon burst out and slapped his hand against his head.

The fear in Katie's eyes made him crack a smile and Katie let out a relieved little laugh when she realized he had been joking.

"You scared me." She said in a stern voice that was very cute coming from such a small person and Damon kept the smile on his face as Katie ran off to look for her kitten.

Hearing her squeal and then giggle as Sushi apparently jumped out from somewhere, startling her made Damon chuckle. He sat back down on the couch and went back to his drink. Happy that life was back to normal.

**XXX**

That night was hair washing night for Katie, meaning hair brushing duty for Damon. This was another part of his new life that he shockingly had found he'd come to enjoy.

"Can Jeremy come here tomorrow?" Katie asked as Damon was collecting her hair into something he thought was a braid.

"I don't see why not." Damon muttered. "Sit still."

Katie stilled herself with a small sigh.

"Any particular reason for why you want emo teen over?" He asked her.

"What's emo?" Katie asked back.

"Another word for self-pitying. Answer my question." He had finished braiding her hair and Katie moved up to the head of the bed as she replied:

"Because he promised to help me with a very important secret project."

"Is that so?" Damon pulled at the cover to tuck Katie in, making Sushi jump where she lay at the foot of the bed. The kitten soon found a new position to lie in and purring, she went back to sleep.

"That's all I can say." Katie told him firmly, making him chuckle.

"Yeah, I got that from the word 'secret'" Damon said, turning off the lamp on her nightstand before rising from the bed. "All right, little one. See you tomorrow."

"Good night." Katie said with a yawn, hugging Archibald to her chest.

Damon reached down and brushed his knuckles over the cheek that was still red from her shower and left the room, turning off the ceiling lights before shutting the door. Not knowing how he had ever been able to go by without tucking that little lady in every night.

**XXX**

**Please let me know how you liked it! I have no plans as of yet to make it a Daroline, I just liked the idea of them having an affair.**

**Next chapter: Christmas at the Salvatore boarding house! And possibly a certain scary someone will pay a visit…**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey everyone! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update but I've been away and not had access to my laptop. Now I'm back though I'm so sorry but this chapter won't contain everything I promised, ergo no Klaus visit just yet. This is just more fluff but next chapter will have some action! At least you'll find out what Katie's secret project is…**

**Enjoy!**

**xo**

"Just to inform you of something, kitty-Kate" Damon announced on the 23rd of December when he, Katie and Stefan were having dinner. "Jeremy cannot come over tomorrow."

"Why not?" Katie asked seriously as she looked up from the broccoli quiche that Stefan had made. In the days that had passed since their shopping trip, Jeremy had been over for at least a couple of hours every day, with the two of them locked up in Katie's room working on the 'secret project'. Damon had given up on trying to find out what it was.

"Because I said so" Damon took a sip of blood that he had in a porcelain cup so Katie wouldn't be freaked out by it. "And also because it's Christmas Eve tomorrow, and even if your mother made sure that's an unknown concept to you, it's a family day."

"It was family day with mommy too." Katie said matter-of-factly. "And Jeremy wasn't gonna come anyway because we're done."

"You're done with the secret project?" Stefan asked, shuffling some quiche into his mouth. "What is it?"

"I won't say this time either, Uncle Stefan." Katie giggled. Stefan had been trying to make her spill by asking what the project was as casually as he could, throwing the question at her when she least expected it. Katie, however, was smarter than that and saw through him every time. Now he just asked because he liked seeing how it made her smile.

"Yeah, uncle Stefan" Damon said and rose from the table to clear it. "Give up already. Katie!" He shouted as Sushi suddenly shot out from where she had been laying on Katie's lap. "How many times have I told you to keep the cat away from here during dinner?"

Katie squirmed.

"A few times?" She tried.

"More than a few." Damon corrected her, putting his hands on his hips. "And how many times have you had her in your lap anyway?"

"More than a few." Katie mumbled. She looked up at him with a sheepish look on her face as Stefan tactfully took over clearing off their plates and taking them into the kitchen. "I'm sorry" The little girl sighed. "But she keeps jumping up on me when you don't see and I don't want to push her away because she probably gets lonely."

Damon couldn't be angry with her even if he wanted to.

"I still told you she couldn't be here, didn't I?" He said and Katie nodded reluctantly. "Meaning you disobeyed me, even if it was to save a poor lonesome animal that runs off and hides under beds for far more than the twenty minutes it takes us to eat."

Katie sighed heavily and Damon ruffled her hair.

"I'm feeling nice today, so all you get is an early bedtime." He smirked at her. "Run upstairs, shower and get in bed. I'll be up in a little while."

"Ok." Katie sighed again before trudging out of the room.

Damon took the last of the glasses from the table and joined Stefan in the kitchen, where the latter was loading the dishwasher.

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?" Stefan said as he closed the dishwasher.

"What, sending her to bed early?" Damon snorted. "Like two hours before her normal bedtime?"

Stefan said nothing as he put the coffee maker on and brought out two mugs from the cupboard.

"She needs to learn to do as we say, brother." Damon sighed, annoyed that he Stefan forced him to explain himself. "If I don't nip disobedience, however trivial it may be, in the bud then she might be tempted to test me on far more dangerous levels. Like leaving the house and getting herself killed."

"You didn't need to play the whole punishment thing though." Stefan said as he poured coffee in the mugs, handing one of them to Damon. "You could have just told her off."

"Already did, you idiot." Damon took a sip from his coffee. "More than once and yet the damn cat somehow kept finding her way onto her knee."

Stefan glared at him for a few moments before sighing:

"Fine, you're right. I stand corrected."

"Don't worry about it, baby bro." Damon smirked. "Your child rearing skills don't come as naturally as mine."

"Dick." Stefan huffed and walked out of the kitchen.

Damon stood smiling to himself for a little while as he finished his coffee. When he was done he walked upstairs and knocked briefly on Katie's door before going in without waiting for a reply. Katie was in bed with Sushi lying next to her and Archibald tucked under her arm. She was stroking Sushi's back and the cat was purring so loudly that the walls felt as if they were shaking. A brief smile flashed across Damon's face at the sight but then he turned serious.

"No kitten in bed tonight, Katie." He declared. "Sushi can sleep on the couch."

Sushi basically slept anywhere but in her basket during the day, her favorite place being the couch. And she usually slept for an hour or two in Katie's bed when the little girl went to sleep, before venturing off into the rest of the house and came back in in the wee hours of the morning, just before Katie woke up. Since Katie had gotten used to falling asleep with Sushi in bed and waking up with the kitten there as well, she thought Sushi slept there all night.

"That's not fair." Katie now said.

"Katie…" Damon growled warningly.

"I meant for Sushi." Katie defended herself. "She always sleeps here at night and she didn't know she was doing anything wrong. I should sleep on the couch."

Damon let out a chuckle.

"Your morals are impeccable, little girl." He shook his head. "Fine. Sushi can sleep in your bed, but you don't spend the night on the couch. I'm not that mad at you. You'll sleep in my bed, door closed so your little friend doesn't get any ideas."

"All right." Katie let out a small sigh and kissed Sushi's head. "Good night Sushi, see you tomorrow."

She jumped off the bed with Archibald in her arms but then hesitated, putting the teddy back on the bed. Damon looked on with his arms crossed over his chest, amused.

"I'm leaving Archibald, in case you get scared." She whispered to the sleeping cat.

Then she looked up at Damon, with a face as serious as someone on death row about to walk towards execution. A single tear found its way down her cheek.

"Aw, come on Katie." Damon said and picked her up in his arms and started walking out of the room towards his own. "No need to pout, it's only for a night and it's not like she stays in your bed all night anyway."

"She doesn't?" Katie looked up at Damon with wide eyes as she was being placed on his bed.

"No, she's a cat." Damon said, sitting down on the side of the bed and lifting the covers for her to crawl in. "She's awake most of the night, because her vision is better in the dark. It's more fun for her to be up at night."

"Oh." Katie looked a little sheepish. "I didn't know that."

"Now you do." Damon smirked, ruffling her hair.

Katie leaned back onto the pillows, sighing for the umpteenth time that evening. Her face, still devastated, made Damon laugh out loud.

"Hey." He said. "Don't look so glum. I'll stay with you until you go to sleep, given you're deprived of your furry friends, living and stuffed. Want me to read to you?"

"Would you?"

"If you want me to."

"Yes please." Katie cracked a little smile.

"Ok then." Damon picked up a random book from the pile beside his bed. It was 'A tale of two cities'. Dickens. Very fitting for Christmas he thought. He started reading aloud and Katie crawled closer to him, putting her head on his shoulder like she always did when he read to her. Damon made it through the three first chapters before Katie's breathing got heavier and she fell asleep. He put the book down and stroked the hair back from her face, like he always did when she fell asleep on his shoulder. He gazed upon her for a few moments before carefully lifting her head and putting it back on the pillow so he could go back downstairs. He looked at the sleeping little girl and then resolutely walked back to her bedroom, snatching Archibald from the bed and going back to place him beside Katie. She clutched the teddy in her sleep and rolled over on her side. Much better, Damon thought. Now she didn't look as lonely in his gigantic bed. He quietly walked out of the room, as usual unable to keep from glancing at the sleeping girl one last time before shutting the door.

**XXX**

The following morning Damon woke up from Katie squirming restlessly next to him in the bed. He rolled over on his side to face her and leaned on his elbow.

"Good morning." He said to the little girl. "What's with the near-jumping-on-the-bed?"

"I just waited for you to wake up so I could ask you if I can go give Sushi food now." Katie looked at him with big eyes.

Damon let out a chuckle that sounded more than a snort.

"That's fine." He told her. "You're no longer under punishment."

Katie flashed him a quick smile and then scooted out of bed. As she reached the door, teddy still in her hand, she turned back at him. Damon questioningly raised his eyebrows, amused by her very serious face.

"How did Archibald get to your bed?" She asked him.

"The cat was ripping at him so I thought he might as well be with someone who appreciated him." Damon shrugged, not feeling up for telling her the truth; that he had been too much of a softie to bear the idea of his little girl sleeping without her beloved teddy.

"Really?" Katie frowned. "Sushi did that? Oh." She smiled at Damon. "Thank you for bringing him to me, daddy."

"You're welcome." Damon sat up as Katie scurried away to feed her kitten. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and went to shower and get dressed.

The rest of Christmas Eve flew by quickly. After breakfast Stefan went out to get a tree and came back with a huge one that they spent all morning decorating. They had lunch in front of the television and then the afternoon was spent watching Christmas-themed movies. Damon could not remember the last time he had actually celebrated Christmas but it felt important to make something of it, for Katie's sake. And by the look of things she was extremely happy with the day, her pearling laughter echoing in the house when Colin Firth jumped into freezing water in "Love Actually". After they'd had Chinese take-out for dinner Stefan went to see Elena and Damon sent Katie to get ready for bed before they had their reading-and-drawing time. The rest of the evening was calm and quiet except for the fire cracking, Katie's pens brushing the paper and Damon turning pages and Sushi's purring where she lay on the couch. When Katie's bedtime came, Damon took her to bed like normally and tucked her in. In spite of the rather eventless day, Katie closed her eyes as soon as her head hit the pillow and Damon smiled to himself as he left her to go wrap the presents he had gotten for her. There weren't many, since he knew she would be uncomfortable with a huge shower of gifts, but he was confident that she would like them. He kept the wrapped gifts hidden in a space behind a bookshelf in the living room and decided that he would wait a few hours before placing them underneath the tree in the parlor. Just in case Katie woke up from Stefan coming home slamming the door.

Around 1 a.m. Stefan had been home for about an hour and they had not heard Katie. Stefan had gone to bed, giving his present for Katie to Damon for him to place under the tree. Damon went to get his own and as he came back into the now dark parlor he stopped at the sound of a glass breaking and a little gasp. Carefully dropping the presents on the floor he sped over to switch on the lights. Now that the room bathed in soft light he saw Katie by the coffee table, shattered glass was on the floor. She was clutching two presents, neatly wrapped in purple paper, one with blue satin ribbon around it and one with green.

"I'm sorry." Katie sighed at the sight of Damon. "I didn't see the table because it was dark and I bumped into it and then the glass fell."

"It's ok." Damon said and then frowned. "Did you step on the shatters? I smell blood."

"I don't know." Katie's eyes widened and she looked down at her feet. She turned pale as the pain caught up with her and she stood up on her toes with her right foot, turning it so she could see. "Oh."

Damon was by her in a split second, picking her up presents and all, to sit her down on one of the sofas. He grabbed her ankle and held her bare little foot up to him.

"It's not so bad." He told her. "Not deep at all, I just need to get the glass piece out."

He clutched her ankle hard to lessen the pain when he pulled the glass out of her foot. She still cried out a little when he did and a few tears sprang from her eyes.

"It's out." Damon said, placing the glass piece on the table as he eased his grip around Katie's foot. "It's ok, sweetie." He reached out and brushed Katie's tears away with his knuckles. "Sit tight, I'll get the first aid kit."

It took Damon seconds before he was back with the first aid kit and he quickly cleaned off the blood from Katie's foot and covered the little wound with a Band-Aid. He kissed her big toe when he was done, making her giggle.

"There, you're good to go." He said. "Though I should obviously tell you that you shouldn't be up this late."

Katie looked down, squirming uncomfortably.

"Relax sweetie, I'm not mad at you." Damon rolled his eyes. "I know what you were doing?"

"You do?" Katie burst out.

Damon raised his eyebrows and smirked.

"Those things your holding kind of give you away."

"Oh." Katie let out a little laugh when she realized she was still clutching the presents in her arms. "Why are you up so late?"

"Same reason as you." Damon stretched out his legs and put his hands behind his head. "Did you stay awake until now?"

"Yeah." Katie mumbled. "I thought you had gone to sleep, I heard a door upstairs."

"That was Stefan." Damon explained, amused. "I have to admit I'm impressed by your determination. Staying awake when you're trying to is not very easy."

"I've been pinching my arms so I wouldn't fall asleep." Katie admitted and Damon now noticed the marks between her hands and elbows.

"All that trouble to play Santa." Damon shook his head as he put his arms back down and stroked Katie's foot with his thumb. "I have an idea." He then said. "Since we're all up anyway, why don't we call Stefan and have our little gift exchange right now? Technically it's already Christmas morning." He smirked and his smile appeared infectious because Katie started to giggle again.

"I'll take that as a yes. Stefan!" Damon yelled, knowing Stefan would hear him.

Stefan was in the parlor within seconds, dressed in pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. He appeared frantic.

"What is it, what's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing." Damon snorted. "It's Christmas."

Stefan looked confused for a moment but when his eyes fell on the gifts Katie was holding he understood and cracked a smile. He spotted the little pile that Damon had dropped to switch on the light and walked over to get it. Careful not to step on the broken glass, he placed them on the coffee table and sat down in between Damon and Katie on the sofa.

"Who goes first?" He asked with childish excitement.

"Katie, obviously." Damon rolled his eyes. Carefully taking the presents out of Katie's arms to put on the table, he handed her one of his. A big box that made Katie's eyes widen.

"Wow." She breathed. "Can I open it?"

"Please do." Damon smirked. "That's sort of the point."

Katie did, and her slow, careful no-ripping-the-pretty-paper opening made Damon turn more and more anxious. What if she wouldn't like it? Soon after though, he was reassured by the smile that spread over Katie's face.

"Wooow!" She said as she opened the fine mahogany box, that folded out into an easel, holding every kind of pencil, made of the best material, a pallet with a mixing knife and not least: the finest oil paints that could be bought for money. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She jumped off the couch to hug Damon and he pulled her up on his lap and hugged her close.

"You're welcome." He mumbled, stroking her back. "I'm glad you like it."

"I really, really like it." Katie beamed.

"This is great, Katie." Stefan was examining the easel box. "You'll be able to do so much good stuff with this."

"I want to give you mine now!" Katie said to both Damon and Stefan. "Can I?"

At their encouraging nods, Katie took the square, hard flat packages from the table and gave the one with blue sash to Damon and the one with the green to Stefan. Then she stepped back, nervously biting her lip?

"Can you please open them fast?" She pleaded and Damon threw her an amused glance.

"Will you open the rest of yours fast? Paper-ripping fast?" He asked and chuckled as Katie's face fell.

"Yes." She promised solemnly.

"Then I'll open fast." Damon smirked and then ripped his present open in a split second.

Stefan did the same. They each had the same kind of thing; it was black pass partout on which Katie neatly had glued nine little square drawings, that were exploding with color and some of which had been spruced with glitter. The middle picture on each collage were just portraits of each brother, with a star background. Then the rest were pictures of moments Katie seemed to have drawn from memory. One of Stefan's drawings was of Stefan and Elena sharing a dessert during their day out with Katie and another one of him making dinner in a ridiculous apron that both Katie and Damon had laughed at. Many of the drawings were very comical and made both Stefan and Damon smile. Damon looked intently at his tableau. Most of his drawings were of him and Katie together. Reading in her bed, him reading on the couch and her drawing on the floor in the parlor, him throwing tuna under the table at the grill (he had been sure Katie hadn't noticed), Damon and Katie playing board games with Elena… And one of him when he was just on the couch looking into the fire, bourbon in hand and all. Katie had captured something very accurate in his out-of-the-world gaze. He wasn't even sure when she might have seen him like this. Lost in the pictures he realized that Katie was still standing and waiting anxiously to see if he liked it.

"Katie, this is amazing." Stefan beat Damon to it. "The best present I've ever had. Thank you."

He pulled the little girl into a hug as her face cracked up in a wide smile. Damon reached out and stroked Katie's hair.

"Your uncle said it very well." He told her as she turned her smile at him. "It's fantastic, truly amazing. I can't believe how much work you've put into it."

"Jeremy helped me come up with some of it, and gluing them on the black." Katie said as she climbed up on Damon's lap. "I've done them for everyone but the others only have one picture that's a little bigger. I've done one for Sushi too, to put above her toilet because she doesn't like her basket."

"You never seize to surprise me, little one." Damon pulled Katie closer with one arm and held out the tableau in his other hand. "Wow."

Katie beamed at him.

**XXX**

Katie opened the rest of her presents, which were books. Some from Damon and the second Alice book from Stefan, in the same edition as the one he had given her for her birthday.

"Can I read a little before I go back to sleep?" She asked Damon after they had said good night to Stefan and Damon was about to tuck Katie in again.

"No." Damon said firmly. "You've been up long enough as it is."

"Ok." Katie got under her cover after having scratched Sushi's ear, not appearing to be too heart-broken by Damon's decline. She yawned as Damon stroked her hair back from her face.

"Thank you for my presents." She said and smiled at him. "I've never had so many before."

"Figures." Damon snorted. "You're welcome. And thank you for mine. No one has ever done anything like that for me before." He was serious now. "I love you so much, Katie. I'm just… I'm so happy you came into my life."

"I love you too." Katie said solemnly. "Really really."

"I'm glad." Damon smirked. "Now that's enough sentimental for one night I think, time for you to sleep a little before the cavalry comes at eleven."

Elena, Jeremy, Alaric and Caroline were coming to spend Christmas day at the Salvatore house.

"Can you stay a little while?" Katie asked.

"You don't even have to ask." Damon stretched out next to her, turning of the bed light. Katie crawled closer to him and immediately fell asleep once her head was on his chest and his arm around her.

"Merry Christmas, Katie." Damon whispered to his sleeping child before going to sleep himself.

**XXX**

**So I hope you thought it was ok and not too boring! I'll update soon but in the meantime; please review and let me know what you think!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi everyone, I'm so so sorry it's taken me this long to update! I hope however that you enjoy this chapter, I'm not so sure about it myself… A lot of stuff happens; the story is starting to take some serious turns. And the guy some of you have been waiting anxiously for is finally here. Enjoy and please let me know you're still out there!**

**XXX**

A near historical event occurred later that morning, namely that Damon woke up before Katie when the time was already ten o'clock. And another unique thing was that she had slept the entire rest of the night in the same position; her head was still on his chest. Damon carefully brushed away the hair that now covered the pretty little face that was practically identical to his own. She was sleeping soundly, her eyes moving underneath her eyelids: a sign that she was dreaming. With all his heart, Damon wanted to let her sleep but knowing that she would want to be awake and ready when everyone came he decided to wake her up.

"Hey, Katie." He murmured against her head, putting his hand on her little back and shaking her gently.

She stirred and wrinkled her face into an obscenely cute expression, her fists knocking into the bedpost as she stretched her arms and legs out. She relaxed and opened her eyes, blinking a few times.

"Is it late?" She mumbled sleepily.

"Ten o'clock." Damon said with a little smile.

"Oh." Katie looked surprised and then frowned. "Then why am I still tired?"

"Because you stayed up so late last night." Damon rolled his eyes and tapped her nose with his finger. "And you haven't slept enough for a tiny person so if you want I'll let you stay in bed. I just thought you might want to be awake when everyone comes, but nobody will be mad or disappointed if you aren't."

"That gladdens my heart." Katie said solemnly and Damon had to stifle a laugh. "But I want to be awake."

"Ok, fine." Damon ruffled her hair. "Then let's shower and get dressed, I'll meet you downstairs for breakfast. Ok?"

Katie nodded while he got out of her bed. She did the same and skipped towards her bathroom while he went to his own. After his shower he dressed quickly in black jeans and black t-shirt and his favorite leather boots before quickly going downstairs. Katie wasn't down yet but Stefan was sitting at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee, looking at the gift Katie had made for him.

"This is truly amazing." He said as Damon entered.

"I know." Damon snorted and went to get out the cereal Katie liked. Fruits and brans for the freakish little creature. "She is an amazing child, in spite of the fact that she's mine."

"What do I hear?" Stefan said in mock shock. "Damon Salvatore saying something bad about himself?"

"Well, it's true." Damon muttered as he filled a mug with coffee for himself and sat down opposite his brother. "That girl is so damn… good. All the way through. It's enough to make a man self-conscious."

He took a sip from his coffee and rolled his eyes as if he couldn't quite believe that he was saying these things aloud.

"You're good, Damon." Stefan said seriously. "Your morals may not have been what they were but you are a good man."

"You think so?" Damon asked with an uncharacteristic insecurity in his voice and his eyes big. For a moment he looked so much like Katie that Stefan would have laughed if it wasn't for the sincerity in his brother's question.

"Without a doubt." Stefan assured him. "I never lost hope on you, not even when you were big bad vampire."

"Well." Damon smirked, back to his normal self. "It was no fun being big bad vampire when biggest

baddest vampire of them all came to town." He said, referring to Klaus. "Speaking of which, how is

hybrid-slaying coming?"

"Not now." Stefan said quietly, hearing Katie's footsteps on the stairs. "Katie's coming."

Moments later, Katie appeared in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. She was dressed in light green tights, her color-exploding Converse, a jean skirt and a long-sleeved t-shirt striped in two shades of red, deep red and coral.

"Hi Uncle Stefan!" She beamed at Stefan, who jumped of the barstool to hug his niece.

"Merry Christmas, Katie." He said and put his arm around her. "I've been thinking a little. What do you say we put up the amazing gifts you made us above the fireplace where everyone can see them?"

"Really?" Katie's face lit up like a sun and she looked over at Damon, who nodded his approval with a smirk. It stayed on his face as his brother and niece went to find the perfect spot to hang the pictures, taking Stefan's with them. Damon proceeded to take out bowls and juice glasses, draining a blood bag as he walked around in the kitchen. He suddenly remembered that he'd promised Elena to preheat the oven for when they came, so they could put the freaking turkey in there straight away. Damon had wanted to cheat and buy a readymade one from the grill but Elena had been stubborn. Damon had never understood the idiotic turkey tradition; it took too damn long and was never worth the effort. He very much doubted it would be if Elena was cooking it, so he had placed an order at the grill just in case. Katie came back, still beaming as she sat up on the table.

"All done?" Damon asked her and poured cereal into her bowl as he sat down opposite her.

"Yup" Katie nodded. "It looks really, really cool."

"Can't wait to see it." He poured milk over her bran flakes and handed her a spoon. "Where is Stefan?" He asked as he poured juice into both of their glasses.

Katie swallowed before answering:

"He went to make himself pretty." She said with a little giggle, repeating what Stefan had told her.

Damon snorted with laughter.

"First Christmas with his girlfriend." He said. "Figures. Katie, slow down!" He scolded when he noticed how Katie shuffled cereal into her mouth with a speed he hadn't even known she possessed.

"I have to eat quickly." She defended herself. "I need to give Sushi her present before the others come."

"Ah, I see." Damon rolled his eyes. "Fine, but if you throw up don't come crying to me."

"I won't" Katie promised seriously and finished of the rest of her breakfast astonishingly fast. She practically ran to the dishwasher to put her bowl and glass in it and then blurred past Damon. "Thank you for breakfast!" she called as she disappeared to go to her precious cat.

Damon shook his head, smiling. Stefan came back into the kitchen a few seconds after Katie left.

"Where was her fire?" He asked Damon.

"The cat." Damon explained and Stefan smiled.

"Sushi."

"My daughter is weird."

"She's adorable."

"That too."

There was a knock on the door.

"Great, they're here." Damon said as if that annoyed him. He and Stefan both went to open the door and were met by Caroline, Elena, Alaric and a somewhat reluctant Jeremy all wearing Santa hats.

"Deck the hall with boughs of holly" Elena and Caroline started singing.

"Falalalala lalalala" Alaric and Jeremy filled in, slightly of key.

Damon and Stefan laughed as they sang and when they were done Damon became aware that Katie had not come scooting to the hall like she normally did when someone was at the door. He frowned slightly as he stepped aside to let the guests in and walked over to the stairs.

"Katie!" He called and started walking upstairs when there was no answer. He went into her room and looked around. There was no one there. His heart froze when he realized that the window was opened and he was by it in a split second, looking down. He saw nothing out of the ordinary at first but then he noticed something hanging from a branch and cursed to himself. It was Sushi, dead. Her head was hanging from the rest of her body in an odd way; her neck had been snapped. Damon felt the panic rising in his chest and quickly moved towards the door to go back downstairs but was met at the door by a very serious-looking Stefan.

"Damon." He said, his voice thick yet barely audible. "Bonnie just arrived…"

"So?" Damon said through clenched teeth, knowing what was about to come.

"Klaus has her." Stefan said the words as if each one was painful to press out. "Klaus has Katie."

**XXX**

"Damon, I'm so sorry!" Bonnie exclaimed, rising from the couch as Damon appeared in the parlor with Stefan in tow.

Damon ignored her and went straight for her throat.

"Give me one reason not to kill you." He growled threateningly.

Bonnie gasped for air as his grip tightened around her neck but before he knew it he was being pulled away by Stefan, Caroline and Jeremy.

"The bitch sold her out!" Damon screamed, completely beside himself. "She just handed a little kid to that fucking monster!"

"He had my mother!" Bonnie said with tears in her eyes. "I was going to spend Christmas with her for the first time since she left and he was there, waiting. He was torturing her, making me watch. He'd kill her if I didn't help."

"And now he'll kill Katie instead." Damon was furious. "She's seven, Bonnie! She's seven years old; her life hasn't even started yet."

"I'm sorry." Bonnie's voice was suddenly hard. "I really am. But she's not supposed to exist; she's an abomination against nature. Vampires shouldn't be able to procreate and if you think it's anything but dark magic that made her being possible you're fooling yourselves."

"Bonnie!" Caroline gasped, her grip on Damon's left arm tightening as he was about to jump at the young witch. "How can you say that?"

"It's true!" Bonnie defended herself. "I did the only thing I could but I'm still here now, aren't I? It might not be too late."

"Bonnie." Elena said wondrously. "How could you do this in the first place?"

"I have to protect my own." Bonnie said, with a small hint of regret in her voice.

Jeremy looked as if he was feeling sick and Alaric placed a hand on his shoulder.

"So, we need to find her." He said. "Bonnie, do you know where Klaus took her?"

"His mansion I think." Bonnie said and looked pleadingly at Jeremy. "Please, Jer… You understand, don't you?"

"No, I don't" Jeremy said fervently. "I don't understand how you can be so cold about it. Katie is not an abomination, she's the most loving and lovable little kid there is."

Damon broke free from Stefan and Caroline as his phone rang. Unknown caller.

"What?" he snapped into the phone.

"Lost our manners, have we?" The soft, all too familiar voice said in a British accent.

"Klaus." Damon hissed through clenched teeth. "Let my daughter go."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Klaus said with a small little laugh. "Can't do that, mate. Not without something in return."

"What do you want?"

"Not so fast." Damon could hear Klaus walk around and he thought he heard a soft whimper in the background. "Why don't we discuss it here? Say, in ten minutes? I would avoid being late if I were you."

The phone clicked as Klaus hung up.

"I have to go." Damon said to Stefan, who had heard the conversation since he had been standing beside. "Make sure the witch doesn't get away, she didn't do us any favors so I don't owe her a thing."

"Good luck." Stefan said silently as Damon blurred out of the door to head as fast as he could towards Klaus's mansion.

He stopped for a split second just as he stood before the door. What kind of sight might meet him once he got inside? What would Klaus have done to Katie? He raised his fist to bang on the door but it flew open just as he was about to. Damon resisted the urge to punch Klaus's teeth in and pretend it was a mistake. Or just do it without any false pretenses whatsoever.

"Damon." Klaus smiled. "Welcome. I have your daughter in my ballroom. I was surprised to know that she's not even familiar with the most common types of dance, you really ought to do something about that."

Damon said nothing; just clenched his teeth as he followed Klaus to the hall, mentally counting the hybrid guests slash guards they passed. Klaus pushed open the double doors to the almost dark ballroom.

"You son of a bitch!" Damon roared and was about to jump Klaus as he was pulled back by two of his hybrid minions.

"There now." Klaus said in a slightly bored tone. "Let's not forget our manners, shall we?"

Damon breathed harshly and reluctantly turned his eyes back at the sight that had caused his outburst. In the middle of the room, from big chains in the ceiling, hung his daughter. Upside down, wobbling slightly. But that was not the worst part. She had been stripped down to her underwear and her body was covered in bite marks, from where the blood ran slowly and dripped onto the floor where a puddle had already formed.

"Daddy…" Katie whimpered as she saw Damon. He noticed now that tears were pouring from her eyes, joining the blood.

"Funnily enough" Klaus said as he casually walked over to Katie, stepping in her blood. "I was unable to feed from her. I can only assume it's because of her being a crossbreed like myself. However, it seemed like a nice symbolic to drain her of blood."

"Why?" Damon growled, not taking his eyes of Katie's. "She's no danger to you; she literally wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"Well, call it revenge then." Klaus said simply. "You and your brother have been killing my family, so I kill yours. But to be fair, your brother has been doing most of it. I should probably be thanking you for getting the Lockwood arse of my back."

Katie let out a little sob and Damon tried his hardest to look reassuring for her. He probably failed miserably.

"Which is lucky for you." Klaus kept smiling at Damon. "Since that means I'm willing to cut a deal. Your brother in exchange for your daughter."

He looked at his wrist, pretending to check a watch that he wasn't wearing.

"Let's see…" He said, dragging the words out. "With the pace young Katie is losing blood, I'd say you have about two hours before she'll be beyond salvation. I suggest you get Stefan here as soon as you possibly can."

"I'm already here." A voice was heard from the door to the ball room. Damon and Klaus both turned to see Stefan standing there. "I figured since it's me who have killed your precious hybrids I'm the one you really want."

"That's one reason." Klaus's voice was casual.

"What's the other?" Stefan frowned as he came to stand beside his brother. He threw a glance over at Katie and his teeth clenched as he looked back on Klaus with a cold stare that could match Damon's.

"Let's just say I have plans for you." Klaus smiled and clapped his hands. A female hybrid came into the room with a huge freeze box in her hands. She sat it down in front of Stefan and opened it. It was full of blood bags. Human blood.

"Drink." Klaus commanded Stefan.

"Why?" Stefan demanded.

"Because I need proof that you are indeed going to leave this life behind to come with me."

Stefan gazed down at the human blood.

"Every second you stand here Katie gets closer to death."

"Stefan…" Damon started but was interrupted.

"I'll do it.

Damon fought the urge to knock Klaus's teeth out as Stefan lifted a blood bag to his mouth and drank. He hadn't been drinking anything but animal blood for decades, apart from a few turbulent weeks a while back. If he went on a blood binge now… There may very well be no turning back after. Stefan emptied the bag and threw it aside.

"All of them." Klaus said.

And so it went on.

**XXX**

Katie was crying hard all the way back to the boarding house. Since Damon was driving there was little he could do to comfort her apart from mumbling soothing words to her and occasionally reaching out to hold her hand. She however seemed oblivious to all of it; she was too busy choking on her sobs. They arrived at the boarding house and were met by the others, except for Bonnie who appeared to have bailed. Damon went over to the other side of the car and lifted Katie out of the front seat, protectively wrapping his arms around her to keep her as warm as he could. She cried against his shoulder as he carried her inside with Elena and Caroline hovering around them and the rest following after. Once inside, Damon stood paralyzed for a moment.

"Stefan is gone." He said in a dead voice, clutching Katie to his chest. "He left with Klaus."

Elena let out a sniffle and turned around. Caroline put a hand on Katie's back and gasped as she felt the blood. Then she noticed the bite marks all over Katie's bare legs and her eyes watered. She collected herself quickly however and said in her usual commanding head cheerleader voice:

"Damon, let me take Katie and get her cleaned up." She tried to lift Katie out of Damon's arms but the little girl wailed and clutched at Damon's neck.

Damon woke up from his near trance and soothingly stroked Katie's hair.

"It's ok." He mumbled to her. "I've got you."

He cocked his head at Caroline to come with him as Jeremy and Alaric tended to Elena.

"Let us know if there's anything we can do." Alaric called after Damon as they walked towards the stairs.

"Just take care of her." Damon told him, referring to Elena. "Get a blood bag, would you?" He muttered to Caroline who disappeared and reappeared in a second with a blood bag from the fridge. They walked upstairs and Damon went past Katie's room to his own and into his bathroom.

"Caroline, go find something for Katie to wear in bed." He told the blonde vampire and once she'd disappeared he stepped into the shower, clothes still on and Katie still in his arms. He turned the water on and felt Katie wince as it poured down over both of them.

"Ok, it's ok." He kissed the top of her head as she sniveled. "Let's get this shirt off of you."

He sat down on the shower floor with Katie on his knee and helped her off with the now soaked shirt. The marks on her little body made his stomach turn but they weren't all as bad as they had first appeared. Damon sat with Katie in his arms as the blood washed away, his chin resting on her head as she sobbed onto his chest. Eventually the hot water seemed to calm her down however, because her sobs were less and less extreme. Once the water was clear and free of Katie's blood Damon slowly stood up and turned the water off. He stepped out of the shower and reached for a big, soft towel which he wrapped Katie in after quickly removing her soaked wet panties. Caroline had reentered his room and was sitting on his bed, waiting. Damon placed Katie in Caroline's open arms and whispered to her that he would just change his clothes. He did quickly and once in dry clothes he walked back to sit on his bed, taking Katie back and taking the blood bag from Caroline.

"Drink." He said, holding it out to Katie.

"No." She whimpered, shaking her head.

"Katie, you have to or you won't heal." Damon told her slowly.

"No!" Katie screamed. "I don't want to! I'm not a vampire!" She started shaking with tears again and Damon helplessly looked at Caroline.

"I don't want to force her" He said quietly.

"How bad are her wounds?" Caroline asked.

"She's lost some blood but it's not life threatening."

"Then we'll just do this the old-fashioned way" Caroline decided. "I'll send Jeremy out for something to clean the wounds with. And Band-Aids. Lots of Band-Aids."

She disappeared out the door and Damon remained where he sat with Katie in his arms. She had calmed down somewhat again and Damon rested his chin against her head as he carefully stroked her still towel-wrapped back. Suddenly Katie mumbled something that was inaudible even for Damon's vampire ears.

"What's that, honey?" He asked her softly.

"He killed Sushi." Katie choked on her words and Damon hugged her a little tighter to him.

"I know." He sighed. "I'm so sorry Katie."

"He just killed her. She didn't do anything." Katie let out a sob.

"I know." Damon didn't know what else to say. There was silence for another while.

"What will happen to Stefan?" Katie then asked, her voice trembling with fear.

"I don't know." Damon said truthfully. "I really don't. But he's a grown-up; he has been for a really long time. He can handle himself." He sounded convincing, he noticed with pride, but he wasn't sure how much truth there was to his words. He knew what Stefan on human blood was like and something told him that being on the road with Klaus wouldn't bring out the best in his little brother.

"If I hadn't gone out the window to get Sushi from the tree, Uncle Stefan wouldn't have gone with the Klaus man." Katie stated with immense sadness in her voice. "Everything is my fault."

Damon took her little chin in a firm grip and tilted her head up to look at him.

"Don't ever talk like that again." He told her sternly. "This was not your fault. Sure, you should have gone to get us to help Sushi but there was no way you could have known. Do you understand me, Katie? _It's not your fault."_

Katie nodded with new tears in her eyes.

"You understand?" Damon repeated.

"Yes." Katie whispered in reply.

"Good." Damon let go of her and kissed her head.

That moment, Caroline reappeared.

"Jeremy will be back as soon as he can." She said and sat down next to Damon and Katie. "How are you feeling, Katie?"

"Ok." Katie mumbled. "Thanks."

"Does it hurt?"

Katie hesitated but then nodded.

"Everywhere or is there anywhere in particular that hurts more?" Caroline's voice was kind.

"On my neck." Katie pointed to somewhere behind her mass of hair. Damon lifted her dark mane and he and Caroline looked at the particularly nasty bite with frowns on their faces.

"You sure about the blood, Katie?" Damon asked and Katie nodded fervently.

"Yes." She said. "No blood."

"Ok, Katie." Caroline said before Damon could argue. "I'll clean your wounds now; you might want to hold on to your daddy's hand."

Katie did as she said, clutching Damon's hand and squeezing it hard as Caroline cared for all of her bites. It took almost an hour before she was plastered up but the little girl was brave and only a couple of times a few tears found their way down her cheeks.

"There" Caroline said when she was done. "Do you want to get into your PJs, Katie or do you want some proper clothes?"

It was still only afternoon, although it was getting darker outside.

"PJs please." Katie mumbled and leaned her head back against Damon's shoulder. He kept holding her as Caroline carefully helped her on with dry underwear and flannel pajamas.

"I think you should stay in bed." Caroline suggested to Katie with a glance at Damon.

"Yeah, and you need to eat something." He filled in as he placed Katie on his bed, propping up the pillows behind her back and putting a comforter around her. "Caroline?"

"I'll go get something." She stood up. "Maybe the Elena's turkey is ready."

"Anything but that." Damon called after her as she disappeared and then sat down next to Katie, stretching his legs out before him on the bed and taking her hand in his.

"Do your wounds still hurt?" He asked her, concerned.

"Not that much." Katie's voice was silent before she said: "Stefan drank a lot of blood."

Damon had suspected she might bring that up.

"He did." Damon said cautiously. "Did that scare you?"

"M-hm."

"It wasn't about you, you know." Damon said since he could sense what Katie was thinking about. "Klaus wanted Stefan; he wanted revenge because Stefan has been killing his hybrids. He would have gotten to him one way or the other; he was just using you to get to Stefan."

"Stefan _killed _them?" Katie's eyes widened.

Oops, Damon thought.

"Well, they were bad." He told Katie. "They ate babies."

Katie didn't look convinced but remained silent.

"My point is." Damon continued. "What Klaus did to Stefan wasn't your fault. I'm getting sick of telling you this but I'll do what I have to to make you get the message. You were wrong to climb out of your window but only because it put YOU in danger. Ok?"

Katie winced as something else sprung to her mind.

"What?" Damon demanded.

"Are you going to spank me because I went out through the window again?" Her quiet voice was trembling.

"No!" Damon burst out with a frown on his face. "Of course I'm not Katie, I'm not a sadist."

"What's that?" Katie looked up with a curious yet cautious look in her eyes.

"Nothing you need to know just yet." Damon muttered. "But I'm not going to spank you; you're in enough pain as it is."

"But I broke your rules." Katie mumbled, looking down on her knees.

"You've got bite marks all over and a dead kitten to show for it." Damon stated. "I'd say that's more than enough as punishment. I don't want to add onto that hurt. Mind you, I can't answer for what I'll do if I catch you climbing out of that window again anytime soon."

"You won't" Katie said with sad relief in her voice. "I'll never climb through windows again."

"Then we don't have a problem." Damon smirked and kissed her head.

There was a knock on the door before it swung open. It was Caroline, with Alaric, Elena and Jeremy. They were all carrying trays of food and plates for everyone.

"I'm not one to cancel a good party." Caroline said with a smile as she sat down the tray on the middle of the floor. "Jeremy, Alaric, let's go get all the blankets and cushions we can find for the floor."

They disappeared and Damon cocked his head for Elena to sit down on the bed.

"Hey, Katie." Elena said and took the hand that was not in Damon's. "How are you feeling?"

"Ok, thank you." Katie said solemnly. "How are you feeling?"

"Ok, thank you." Elena smiled sadly.

"Elena…" Damon said and she looked at him. "We'll get him back. I promise."

"I know we will." Elena's voice was firm. "At least he's alive and Katie is home safe." She forced a smile and it was almost convincing. Damon took her free hand in his free hand and all three of them were holding hands for a few moments before the others came back. Caroline made a big show out of "setting the floor" and they all picnicked as they watched The Holiday, which seemed corny and cheerful enough. After a few servings of Elena's turkey, that was actually edible and quite good, it almost felt like Christmas.

"Can I go to sleep?" Katie whispered to Damon once the movie was over. She was on his lap where he sat with his back leaned against the bed.

"Of course you can." He told her and lifted her in his arms as he stood. "Here or in your room?"

"I don't want to be alone." Katie blushed slightly.

"Here then." Damon stated and put Katie down in his bed as he sat down himself next to her. The others were debating which movie to see next as Elena said The Holiday hadn't been mind-blowing enough to distract her thoughts from Stefan.

"Will you give the others my presents?" Katie was still very silent in her request.

"Don't you want to do that yourself?" Damon asked her.

"I'm too tired."

Katie really didn't look well. She had eaten well enough, even if it had taken some persuasion and when Damon felt her forehead she wasn't abnormally hot. It was probably just the shock and the blood loss of course. That would make her tired.

"Tell you what." Damon started. "We'll just save them for tomorrow. I don't think anyone is leaving and you had been looking forward to giving your presents to everyone so I think you should do it. That sound ok?"

"Yeah." Katie nodded sleepily.

"Good." Damon leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Want me to get Archibald for you?"

"No, don't go away!" Katie pleaded and clutched his hand.

"Hey, Jer." Damon turned to Jeremy. "Go get Archibald."

Jeremy knew what Katie's teddy was called so he didn't need to be asked twice. He left the room and came back a minute later, handing Archibald to Katie.

"Thank you Jeremy" She said and hugged the bear to her. "Will you stay too?"

"Let's all stay." Alaric spoke up. "I'm pretty sure no one of us wants to be alone tonight, am I right?"

He looked around him for confirmation. Caroline, Elena and Jeremy nodded.

"Let's do it like a sleepover!" Caroline suggested. "Here, on the floor."

"Sure, I'll go get mattresses if you guys clear away all the food." Elena said and threw a glance at Damon. "Is it ok?"

"Sure." Damon shrugged with a somewhat sad smirk at Katie. She gave him a weak smile in return.

The others got to work and Damon remained with his daughter as the trays and plates were carried away down to the kitchen.

"Are you ok?" Damon asked Katie as she climbed up on his lap and put her head against his chest. Damon swung his legs up on the bed and stretched them out before him, stroking Katie's hair as he held her. "Katie?" He demanded when he got no answer from her. She nodded into his shirt and clutched her teddy tighter to her. Damon pulled at the comforter and wrapped it around his little girl.

"Daddy?" Katie asked quietly after a while, when he had almost thought her to be asleep.

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Can we bury Sushi tomorrow?" Katie's voice was so full of desperate hope that it made Damon's chest ache.

"I'm sorry, baby." He sighed. "I can't let you out of the house; Klaus might still be out there waiting to take you."

"Oh."

Damon put his lips against her hair and hugged her tighter to him.

"Tell you what though." He then said as an idea sprung to his mind. "Caroline and I will bury Sushi by the tree and you can watch with the others from your window. How is that?"

"Ok." Katie nodded. "Thank you." She said, hugging him.

"You're very welcome." Damon murmured. "Try to get some sleep now."

Katie followed his advice and went out like a light almost immediately. Damon half-smiled at the adorable sleeping child and he felt fury rising towards Klaus, or anyone who'd want to hurt her.

The others came back, dragging mattresses and more blankets. Damon lifted his index finger to his mouth for them to be quiet and so they were, for hours just gazing into the burning fire, silently comforting and supporting each other. Much later, when they all started to drift off to sleep, it almost felt like Christmas.

**XXX**

**Ok everyone, I hope you didn't hate it and please excuse me for not having proof read… I love it when you review so please please let me know what you think! And I'm sorry I made Bonnie a bad guy here but I think she's annoying. She might get better eventually though! Thank you for reading and I'll try to update sooner next time!**

**xo**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey everyone, sorry about my laziness lately in the update department! This is actually going to be the last chapter in this part of the story but if enough people are up for it I might write a sequel where Katie is older. Let me know what you think. **

**Thank you SO MUCH everyone who has read this story, for all the favourites and alerts and to all of your encouraging and amazing reviews. I have loved writing this and it's inspired me to write mor fanfics, though I'm not yet sure what my next one will be.**

**THANK YOU, I hope you'll like this sort of sad chapter and please leave a last review :D**

**XXX**

It had been a terrible few months since Christmas, for all of them and tonight terrible had gone beyond itself. Damon led a very weak Elena into the parlor, where Caroline was sitting with a book.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Caroline burst out and rushed to her friend's side.

"Stefan happened." Damon muttered as he helped Elena sit down in an armchair and went to get her a drink. "He's crossed over to the dark side." He frowned. "The even _darker _side. Where's Katie?"

"In her closet." Caroline replied.

Damon sighed at receiving that information. Since she had been kidnapped, Katie spent most of her time hiding in one place or another. Wanting to be alone but being afraid of it at the same time, since she would come running every ten minutes to see that someone was still around. They would have to brief Caroline fast before Katie came, since Damon did not want her to hear what had happened tonight. Elena shook her head and took a large sip from the glass Damon was handing to her.

"He's so changed." She said, almost to herself. "He is not Stefan anymore. He called me a human blood bag."

"Oh sweetie." Caroline hugged Elena.

"I found her in the hospital, the nurse had been compelled to drain her of blood" Damon said disapprovingly.

"Stefan wasn't even compelled at first; he just did whatever Klaus told him to do without question."

"Did they come to your house?" Caroline asked. "Could Klaus get in?"

"No, he was outside." Elena mumbled. "Stefan opened all the windows. He killed Jeremy and when he came to he took his ring off and threatened to do it again unless I came with them. I asked him not to, begged him… But he was like a mindless henchman. Then Klaus told him to drink my blood, just for the hell of it I guess but he didn't do it. There was still a little bit of him left in there. Then Klaus compelled him to shut his humanity off and then…" Her voice died out but Caroline got the idea.

"Oh god." She said.

"Yeah." Damon agreed. "Now shut up about all of this because Katie is coming. Barbie, you take care of Elena while I put the little one to bed."

"Of course."

Damon walked out in the hallway just as Katie came down the stairs, already showered and in pajamas. Damon scooped her up in his arms and she hugged him. Tonight was the first time since Christmas that he had been away from her, and it was only to help Elena after the distress call Jeremy had made.

"Hey Katie." He said to her. "Let's get you to bed, it's too late for you to be up."

He took her upstairs to his own room as she was afraid to sleep in her own, claiming there were people outside her window when she was sleeping. She was ok sleeping where Damon was, but she had nightmares more often than not. Damon felt now that he knew what parents of infants must feel like. Crying children waking them up in the night, without being able to say what was wrong. Because Katie never wanted to tell him about her nightmares, there was no way of getting it out of her and it frustrated Damon immensely. However, he did what Katie wanted and didn't pressure her. The only thing he forced her to do was eat, since she seemed to have lost her appetite completely. She had lost weight, which on such a small child was sickening. After a few weeks of hunger strike, Damon had put his foot down (sort of) and now Katie had regained some of the lost weight and ate what was put in front of her without arguments. She never argued about anything anymore, barely even spoke. She never did anything but sit in front of the television watching news channels and she had Archibald with her at all times, holding the teddy close to her chest. The morning after Klaus kidnapped her and Stefan disappeared, she awoke drained of energy in the way that Damon had only seen her when she was sick. They all had an exchange of Christmas presents with their guests and Katie was not at all excited at the prospect of either giving or receiving. She sat next to Damon and once all the gifts had been unwrapped (none by Katie, not even her own) she had whispered to Damon the request that he bury Sushi. He did what she wanted and frequently gazed up towards her window where she stood with Elena's protective hands on her shoulders. When Sushi was buried, Katie went to bed although it was already noon. The others soon excused themselves and went home and Damon couldn't blame them. They were shaken too by what had happened to Katie and Stefan.

"Do you want something before bed? Water?" Damon asked Katie as he pulled the cover on his bed up over her.

"No" Katie said, barely audible. She no longer had the energy for her polite mannerisms.

Damon gazed upon the little girl with a sort of concern that would never have been seen in his eyes six months earlier. With a sigh, he stretched out next to his daughter and pulled her close so she could rest her curly head on his chest. She couldn't go to sleep unless he was there. Damon stroked her hair back from her face and took her hand in his. He had never felt so freaking helpless in all his life.

**XXX**

"She asleep?" Elena asked him when Damon came downstairs half an hour later. Elena and Caroline had practically moved into the boarding house since Christmas.

"Finally." Damon sighed. "I'm spoiling her."

"Shut up, Damon." Caroline said from where she was stretched out on the leather couch with a drink. "That girl went through hell and you know it. Do whatever she wants you to do for as long as she needs. Understand?"

Damon's eyebrows shot up and he glanced at Elena, who looked about as pleased with his choice of words as Caroline was.

"Calm down." He muttered to both of them. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm just wondering if I'm doing the right thing, just letting her mope around like this. I feel like I should…" He was at a loss for words so he just rolled his eyes. Damon went behind the couch and poured himself a drink, which he drained in one sip. Sighing, he poured himself another one and threw himself on the couch next to Caroline's feet.

"I think I'll go home, see how Jeremy's doing." Elena said to the others and started gathering her things. "I'll come over tomorrow, kiss Katie for me when she wakes up."

"Sure." Damon threw a glance at her. "Are you ok?"

"I will be."

Caroline got up and hugged Elena goodbye and after she left went back to sit on the couch, refilling her glass before doing so.

Damon and Caroline were silent, drinking their bourbon and looking into the fire. Eventually, Caroline spoke up.

"So what are you going to do with Katie?"

"I don't know." Damon snapped. "I don't know, she's just so… Broken. And with Stefan back in town… I don't want her to know. She loves him, if she sees him like he is now… Would she be able to get back from that?"

Caroline was quiet for a few moments.

"You should leave." She said quietly. "Leave town, as soon as you possibly can before Klaus puts his hybrids or even Stefan on guard or whatever. He's crazy and possessive enough to just decide that he needs to keep Katie locked up in the house."

Damon frowned.

"Like I have."

"Oh my god, Damon!" Caroline burst out. "I didn't mean…"

"Yeah, I know." Damon interrupted. "I know."

Another deep sigh.

"I think you're right. I should get her out of here."

Caroline looked down at her lap before pushing Damon's left thigh with her foot. He turned his eyes from the fire to her.

"What?"

"I'll miss you. Both of you."

Damon smirked.

"Funnily enough, I think I might miss you too." He turned serious when he heard the pitter-patter of bare feet down the stairs. He rose from the couch and caught Katie in his arms as she came running into the room, clutching Archibald. He held her close and she buried her face in the crook of his neck, holding onto him for dear life.

"Nightmare?" Damon murmured in her ear as he stroked her back and carried her over to the couch. He felt Katie nod as he sat down with her still in his arms. "It's ok, I'm here. Want to tell me about it this time?"

She shook her head and Damon shrugged as he looked at Caroline, who sat up and moved closer to them. Eventually Katie leaned back and looked up at Damon and Caroline with a grave look in her pale eyes.

"Do you think there is a heaven?" She asked them.

"No." Damon snorted but upon seeing Katie's eyes widen even more and feeling Caroline punching him in the side he quickly added. "I mean, I don't think that people fly up in the sky to hang out with God and those dudes but I think it's an even better place where everything is just… Good."

He gazed at Caroline who nodded her approval and added:

"It's the most amazing place where all the good people are."

"Do you think my mom is there?"

"Sure." Damon said.

"And Sushi?" Katie now had tears in her eyes. "Do cats get to go there too?"

"Of course." Damon said softly.

"Will I go there?"

"Yes!" Caroline screamed.

"Obviously." Damon said, rolling his eyes.

Katie let out a little sigh of relief.

"Then I think it will be ok."

Damon shifted her slightly on his lap so he was looking directly into her eyes.

"What do you mean?" He asked tightly.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking." Katie said matter-of-factly. "And I think it's for the best if I die because then you wouldn't have to be worried anymore and I'd get to be with mommy and Sushi."

Damon just stared at her and she started squirming under his glare.

"Damon…" Caroline started as she saw the fury shooting out of Damon's eyes like lightning.

"Shut up, Caroline!" Damon hissed and abruptly rose from the couch, yanking Katie up with him by her arms. He vampire sped upstairs, into his bathroom.

"Someone is _clearly_ in need of a wake-up call." He growled to the shocked Katie as he roughly put her down on her feet in the shower, snatched Archibald from her arms and turned the cold water on. Like he had on her first morning in the house. It seemed like forever ago.

Katie closed her eyes tightly and pouted as the water came running over her. Damon threw Archibald in the bathtub and put his hand on Katie's shoulder to keep her under the shower. She didn't struggle. After a little while, when she was soaking wet and shaking slightly from the cold, Damon turned the shower of and pulled Katie out by her wrist leading her to the bathtub where he sat down on the edge and grabbed hold of Katie's shoulders.

"Do _not ever _say anything like that again." He told her firmly, giving her shoulders a little shake. "Do you understand?"

Katie just glared at him, getting a defiant spark in her eyes. Damon let his frustration get the better of him and smacked Katie on her over her soaked pajama bottom. She winced at the sting but still said nothing.

"Damn it, Katie!" Damon shouted. "What do I have to do to get a freaking reaction out of you?"

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"Please baby." He said, letting his hands slip of her shoulders down to her hands, which he cradled in his own. "I'm a mess right now too, these past months haven't exactly been good for me either. We have to help each other and you going all suicidal on me is not helpful."

"I'm sorry." Katie whispered. "I'll try to be better."

"Sweetheart." Damon said with a humorless chuckle. "You don't have to be better or you'd be an angel. You just have to be _happy. _I get that it's a lot to ask, trust me and I know it's not gonna just happen with a snap of my fingers but you're a _kid. _You're too young to be talking about dying, you should… have _fun. _Or something."

His demands were starting to sound pretty high.

"It's not that fun here anymore." Katie said with a little shiver.

"I know." Damon said as he rose from where he sat and reached for a big soft bath towel that he put around Katie's chilled little body. "That's why we're gonna get the hell out of here as soon as we've got you into some try clothes."

"What?" Katie burst. "I don't want to leave!"

"I thought you said it wasn't fun here anymore." Damon raised an eyebrow, secretly happy that Katie seemed to have gotten her will back after months of being a zombie.

"But this is home." Katie mumbled.

Damon crouched down before her.

"I know." He said. "Ok? I know. But Klaus is back in town and I don't know what that lunatic's plans are for you."

Fear filled Katie's face instantly.

"K-Klaus?" She stuttered. "Is Uncle Stefan back too?"

Damon hesitated. Could he tell her that Stefan was back? Would she understand what her uncle had become?

"No." He said with a sigh. "Stefan's not… With us anymore."

It wasn't technically a lie and he decided that believing Stefan was dead would be less painful for Katie. After all, she was getting used to her loved ones dying. Katie started sobbing and he hugged her to him.

"So do you see why we have to leave?" He asked her quietly.

"Uh-huh." She nodded into his chest before she broke free. "Can Archibald come too?"

"Of course. I think we'll be able to fit him in the car." Damon stroked her hair as he rose and reached into the tub to fetch the teddy. "Come on, let's get you changed."

He led her out of the bathroom and on their way to Katie's room they ran into Caroline.

"I can't believe you put her in the shower_ again_." She said, rolling her eyes at Damon and clarified as he frowned: "Elena told me. Are you ok, sweetie?" she asked Katie.

"Yeah, I'm just a little bit sad." Katie said seriously and Damon squeezed her hand.

"We need to pack." Damon said. "Think you could help?"

"I already packed for Katie." Caroline snorted. "I'm practiced at the art of fitting many things into bags."

"How surprising." Damon muttered sarcastically before sighing and adding. "Thanks."

"Come Katie." Caroline said, taking Katie's hand from Damon's. "I'll help you get changed in something comfy and warm while your daddy packs."

Damon threw Caroline a look that was as close to grateful as he could get it and sped off back to his room. He had never expected to be this depressed at the idea of leaving Mystic Falls.

**XXX**

"You should take my car." Caroline said fifteen minutes later when they were at the door ready to leave. Katie was dressed in a green and yellow tracksuit, with her red coat on over it and Archibald under her arm. "It's a little less conspicuous than yours." Caroline added.

"Admit it, you just want mine." Damon grinned at her as he lifted Katie up with one arm, taking his bag in the other as Caroline took Katie's. They went to Caroline's silver car and put the bags in; thereafter Caroline got Katie's car seat from Damon's car.

"Put it in the front." Damon instructed her and she did as he asked.

Katie wriggled out of Damon's grip to throw herself around Caroline.

"Bye Caroline." She whispered.

"Good bye, sweetie." Caroline said with tears in her eyes, kissing Katie's still damp hair. She helped her into the car and strapped her in, closing the door and turning to Damon, who was leaning against the back door.

"Bye, Barbie." He said with a smirk that didn't quite have its usual spark.

"Bye Damon." Caroline tried to smile back.

They stood awkwardly for a few seconds.

"We'll meet again." Damon said casually. "We have eternal lives so I'd say we're bound to bump into each other sometime."

"Yeah." Caroline shook her head as if it was silly to think something else. "Of course we will."

"Right then." Damon clapped his hands together. "Thanks for your help, appreciate it."

"Sure."

Damon walked around the car and got behind the wheels. Caroline remained watching as the car purred away and then abruptly stopped at the gate. In a split second, Damon was before her and she flinched. She never seemed to get used to that.

"Just one for the road." Damon muttered, took her head in his hands and kissed her as if his life depended on it. Caroline threw his arms around him and blinked to keep the tears from running down her cheeks. It seemed like forever and no time at all before Damon let go. Smiling tightly he vampire sped back to the car and drove off, for real this time. Caroline stood where she was for a few minutes and then disappeared back into the boarding house, intending on finding Damon's best bourbon and drain the bottle dry.

**XXX**

Damon was driving obscenely fast, so fast that Katie sank down in her seat so she wouldn't see how fast the trees flew by.

"Sit up straight, Katie." He told her as he picked his phone up from his pocket and pushed a button. "You'll hurt yourself if we hit something. Not that we will, because I'm a very good driver and I have super senses." He added at her scared glance.

Katie straightened herself up and held Archibald close.

"Hey, it's me." Damon said into the phone when Elena picked up. "How's Jeremy?"

"He's ok." Elena said in the other end.

"And you?"

"I'm fine Damon." Elena sighed. "Where are you, you sound like you're in a car?"

"I am." Damon confirmed. "I'm leaving town with Katie. With everything that's going on I suggest you do the same. I'll call you when I have a new phone with a new number and you can join us."

There was a pause in the other end.

"I can't, Damon." Elena said sadly. "I belong here; I can't just leave everyone and everything."

"Elena." Damon said tightly, clutching the wheels hard with his other hand. "If I can, so can you. Think about it, he's gone."

He noticed how Katie flinched.

"Not for Stefan!" Elena said. "Jeremy, Ric, Bonnie, Caroline… I've lived here all my life, there are too many people that I love here. I can't abandon them. It's different for you; you have to protect your child."

"Right then." Damon muttered. "I guess this is goodbye for an indefinite time."

"I guess so." Elena said. "Be safe Damon. Keep Katie safe."

"I intend to." He sighed. "Please, _please, _try not to get yourself killed."

"Yeah."

"Can I talk?" Katie suddenly asked from beside Damon.

"Katie wants to talk." Damon said into the phone. "Bye Elena."

He handed the phone to Katie and tuned out as she started mumbling into the phone. A few minutes later, she hung up with tears in her eyes, handing Damon back the phone.

"I talked to Jeremy too." Katie wiped her eyes furiously. "It's important to say goodbye to people when you move away. Will you say goodbye to me if you disappear like mommy did?"

Damon frowned at the road.

"I won't disappear like she did, Katie." He said forcefully. "I'll take you with me if I do. Ok?"

"Ok." Katie sighed, her lip trembling. "I'll miss everyone. Really really miss them."

"We'll see them again." Damon didn't know where his words came from but he realized they were true. Once it was safe, when Katie was older, they were going back to Mystic Falls and get rid of Klaus once and for all. But he wouldn't have Katie growing up around all the crap going on now.

"Do you promise?" Katie asked, looking up at him with big eyes.

"Yes."

Katie smiled, the first smile he had seen on her face since Christmas and it nearly made him cry. He drove on for another while. He wasn't quite sure where they were heading, Canada maybe. Yeah, Katie would like Canada.

"Katie?" Damon suddenly said, as something sprang to his mind. "You know earlier… I'm sorry I put you in the shower, and that I smacked you and all. I was just so worried about you. You understand?"

"Yeah." Katie nodded. "It's ok and I'm not cold and it doesn't hurt."

"Good."

Katie yawned and hugged Archibald. Damon reached back and grabbed his leather jacket that he'd put in the back of the car. He laid it over Katie with his right hand and stroked her hair with his eyes on the road.

"Get some sleep." He urged her. "When you wake up we'll be somewhere far away."

"Ok." Katie mumbled. "Daddy Damon?"

"What?" Damon demanded, smirking at her name for him.

"I love you."

Damon's voice got stuck somewhere in his throat but he managed to get out a reply:

"I love you too, Katie."

Katie drowsed off to sleep and Damon kept driving, glancing at the little girl by his side. It would be a hard ride for sure and he was more afraid of what was to come than he had been in his entire existence. But he also felt exhilarated in the most extraordinary way. Because whatever the future may throw at him, he was not without a cause. For the first time in his life he had something real to fight for. And that something was a someone, who was now appearing to be sleeping calmly for the first time in months. Yeah, Damon thought as he stepped on the gas, he'd make sure they made it. Everything would be ok.

**XXX**

**So that was indeed that! I hope you're ok with the story ending here and like I said, there might be a sequel set ten years later.**

**Thank you for reading, please review!**

**ps. I'm sort of crying about the fact that this story is done now…**


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